A Guild Like No Other
by Catastrophic Bacon
Summary: A chance encounter with a blonde fire wizard, leads to Jaune joining the famous wizarding guild called Beacon. There he will experience all the friendship, madness and adventure that comes with being a guild wizard. Fairy Tail inspired AU.
1. A Chance Encounter

It was just after mid-day when the yellow motorbike pulled up outside Tukson's Book Trade. The rider of the bike, one Yang Xiao Long, took off her helmet and inspected the sign hanging above the door to make sure that it was the right place.

Having confirmed she was exactly where she wanted to be, Yang dismounted her bike and went inside. As she entered she was greeted by the sight of a decently sized room with dozens of shelves and all of them packed with books.

While the store had a large collection of books, Yang knew it was nothing in comparison to Beacon's library. However what Tukson's Book Trade lacked in size, it made up for with certain type of explicit literature that a certain Faunus friend of Yang's was interested in.

The store didn't have many customers at the moment. Just a mother with two small children being seen to by what she assumed was Tukson and a boy, with hair the same colour as her own, that Yang could only guess was around her age.

The boy wore a black hoodie and jeans and over that he had a white chest plate and white spaulders. To Yang's knowledge there was only one type of person who wore armour when walking around town. This boy was a wizard just like her. Not wanting to spend any more time than she had to in the store, and with the owner already occupied she headed over to the boy.

"Hey. Bookworm," she called out.

The boy's head snapped up from the book he had been engrossed with and looked to Yang, then looked around to see if she had been directing her comment to someone confirming there was, in fact, no one else nearby he asked "Uh… where you talking to me?"

Yang rolled her eyes. "Do you see anyone else around that I might have been talking to?"

"Well no," came the awkward response. "It's just that I don't have a lot of people come up and start talking to me. Especially beauti-" He quickly cut himself off before he could say anymore and Yang could see his cheeks become a little red. Yang smiled to herself, this was just too good an opportunity to let it slip past.

"What was that last part you said just then?" Yang asked feigning innocence.

"Nothing!" her fellow blonde quickly replied. "I-I just said that I don't have many people come talk to me."

"Really? I could have sworn you said something else towards the end there," Yang couldn't keep the smile out of her voice as the boy in front became even more red and suddenly became very interested in looking at anything that wasn't her.

Deciding she had had enough fun, Yang decided to get back to what she had originally come over to ask.

"You know there was a reason I came over here and believe it or not it wasn't to see your impression of a tomato. Do you happen to know where they keep the…" She leaned forward as though she had a secret to tell and the boy reflexively did the same. "Adult literature?" she asked in a stage whisper.

Yang hadn't thought it possible but somehow her fellow blonde's face became even redder than it was before.

"I-It's uh, over that way," the blushing boy managed to stammer out while point to a shelf in one of the store corners furthest from the door.  
With a quick thanks, Yang left the boy and headed in the indicated direction. It didn't take her long to choose a book, mostly because she just grabbed one at random that didn't look familiar, and she was soon paying the store owner for the book.

"Enjoy your book," Tukson said with a mischievous smile that said he knew exactly what the book she brought was about.

"It's not for me," Yang explained. "It's for a friend of mine."

"Sure it is," Tukson agreed with the same smile.

Yang opened her mouth to argue her innocence when the squeal of a car suddenly braking outside interrupted her. Her head whipped around to investigate the noise and was greeted with the site of a white van that had stopped in the middle of the road just outside the book store. A moment later the side door was thrown open revealing three masked men wielding machine guns.

"GET DOWN!" Yang yelled as she threw herself to the ground a split second before gunfire tore through the book store.

Bookshelves splintered and broke while books were blown apart by the continuous gunfire. When the bullets finally stopped flying Yang raised herself up on one knee, ready to tear those idiots apart for shooting at her and filling her hair with debris, only for her expression to turn from anger to fear as a trio of red dust grenades came sailing through the destroyed windows and exploded across the already damaged shelves.

Above the sound of the rapidly spreading inferno, Yang herd the van speed away but she had more important things to deal with. Reaching over the counter, she grabbed Tukson and pulled him over before half leading half dragging him outside. Once outside she released the shocked store owner, she pushed her newly purchased book into his hands before heading back inside.

As Yang re-entered the now burning store, she struggled to see anything through the smoke and flames. The building's sprinkler system had activated but the store filled with paper books and wooden shelves had quickly become an inferno. As a fire wizard the heat was no problem, but the fire was quickly eating up all the oxygen in the room and sadly putting out fires with her type of magic was a lot harder than starting one.

To her knowledge, the only other people in the book trade were the family and the boy she had been talking to to prioritise the family, she headed over to where she last remembered seeing them. It only took a matter of seconds to find the family, but the attack had caused a lot of damage and Yang had to lift a fallen shelf in order to get to the family that was huddling together.

She was halfway through lifting the shelf when she heard a loud creaking noise. She looked to the terrified family and to her horror saw that the shelf they were next to, damaged by gunfire and further weakened by flame, was about to collapse right on top of them. Yang pushed with all her might and threw the shelf clear, but the other shelf was already falling and she knew she wouldn't make it in time.

"Light Make: Shield!" A loud voice proclaimed and a heater shield composed entirely of brilliant white light appeared above the family, stopping the falling shelf in its tracks. Yang looked towards the voice and saw the boy she had been talking to earlier, except now he looked a lot less awkward.

His hands were clasped in front of him as though in prayer, there was blood running down the side of his head and his teeth were clenched together in determination.  
"Get them out of here!" he growled.

Yang hurried to obey, running over to the family and quickly guiding them out from under the shelf. The moment they were clear the shield blinked out of existence and the shelf came crashing down loudly. She burst out of the burning store with the family and they all started trying to cough out the smoke while simultaneously trying to pull in as much fresh air as possible. As Yang started to get her bearings she, for arguably the first time in her life, was glad to hear the sirens of the emergency responders.

Despite the relief she felt at seeing the fire department arrive on the scene something didn't sit right. A few moments later she realised what it was, the blonde boy, she was really going to have to learn his name after this, hadn't come out.

She was about to head back in and look for him when he came stumbling out only to drop to his knees and start coughing viciously. Yang rushed over to her fellow wizard and pulled one of his arms over her shoulders and helped him to his feet and over to one of the ambulances that had just arrived.  
"I thought you were right behind me, why did it take you so long to get out?" Yang berated the knight in soot stained armour.

"I had to check the back rooms, make sure everyone else was out."

The revelation came crashing down on her like a ton of bricks. She had been so occupied with getting those she knew of out that she completely neglected to check if there was anyone else. It didn't help that his throat was so dry the words came out as barely more than a whisper, reminding her that not everyone shared her invulnerability to heat. Not to mention the way he had selflessly risked his life trying to save people, reminded her of someone she definitely didn't want to imagine running through a burning building.

"Well now that everyone else is safe, let's get you looked after superhero."

"Jaune," Came the quite reply.

"What was that?"

"My name is Jaune."

Yang smiled. _Thanks for clearing that up._ "Jaune huh? Well I'm Yang! I would like to say it was nice meeting you, but to be honest this a pretty horrible situation to meet someone in."  
This evoked a laugh from the newly named Jaune that quickly dissolved into a coughing fit. When Jaune finally got the coughing under control they were nearly at the ambulance.

"You're going after them aren't you?" Jaune asked suddenly. All traces of humour disappeared from Yang's face and was replaced with unflinching determination.

"Oh yeah."

"I want in."

Hearing this, Yang smiled. "I was kinda hoping you would say that. But right now you need some medical attention." Seeing Jaune open his mouth to argue Yang cut him off. "I'm not saying no. As it happens I'm going to need to pay someone a visit to find out who these jokers are and where their hiding. Once I'm done I'll contact you on your scroll and we can meet up then head over."

This seemed to set the knight at ease as he didn't resist when Yang deposited him in the open rear of an ambulance. While the paramedics set about cleaning his head wound and checking him for any other injuries, Yang quickly exchanged numbers with the injured boy before walking over to her bike. It was time to pay Junior a visit.

* * *

It wasn't much later that Yang was once again turning her motorcycle onto the street that gave access to Tukson's Book Trade, or at least what use to be Tukson's Book Trade. This time around she was forced to park a lot closer to the turn in as fire-trucks and ambulances clogged the street further down.

She had barely turned off her cycle when she spied the tall form of Jaune jogging towards her. As he got closer she noticed that he was now sporting a bandage around his head at forehead level, but despite this obvious evidence to a recent injury, the boy was still smiling happily as he approached.

"Hey, Yang," he greeted happily.

"Hey," Yang replied far more casually as she took her helmet off but remained seated.

"So did you manage to find out anything?" Jaune asked eagerly.

Honestly he was starting to remind her of an over eager puppy. Shaking the mental image that thought came with out of her head, Yang regained a bit of her composure.

"Yeah, the guy I talked to was able to tell me that the group that attacked the store are a local gang with a strong anti-faunus sentiment. They never really been a major problem before, but recently someone has started arming them with serious hardware. Those guns and grenades they used in the store today are just some of the new toys these guys have been supplied with. And if my contact is as good as he claims to be, then we will be able to find these thugs hiding out in an old house not too far from the docks."

Jaune stared at her with eyes wide and mouth open. "How the heck did you manage to find all that out in less than an hour?" he asked in astonishment.

"I know a guy," remarked Yang proudly, as she enjoyed the ego boost Jaune's awe provided. "He claims he knows just about everything that goes on anywhere."

Jaune paused in thought for a second before asking, "He doesn't sound like the type of guy who gives away information freely. What did he want in exchange?"

"He just asked that I give him some information in exchange for what he gave me," Yang replied, happy that Jaune seemed quick on the uptake.

"Knowledge for knowledge sounds fair. What did you tell him?"

Yang opened her mouth as though to say something, before pausing as though she were changing her mind. "Nothing important. Now are we going to stand around asking questions all day or are we going to get some payback?"

"Actually, there is one last thing," Jaune said surprisingly.

He reached into a pocket, and when he removed his hand from his pocket he was holding a book. He passed the book over to Yang and as she took it, she realised it was the one she had brought earlier that day.

"The store owner gave that to me, apparently you left it with him and forgot to take it back," Yang quickly stored the book as Jaune continued talking. "You know when you asked where the uh, 'adult literature', was I thought it might have just been a bit of a joke but I guess I was wrong."

"The books not for me," Yang corrected.

Jaune just smiled. "It's okay Yang. I'm hardly going to judge someone who risks their life running into a burning building to save strangers by the books they read."

Yang fixed her fellow blonde with a glare. "Shut up and get on the bike or you can forget about this team-up."

Jaune instantly straightened up. "Yes ma'am," he said hastily before climbing onto the bike.

"Oh and by the way," Yang started saying as she put her helmet back on. "If your hands go anywhere they shouldn't be, I start breaking fingers."

And with that she pulled out into the road.

"I thought your guy said they were hiding out here," Jaune queried as he stared at the suspect house.

"He did," Yang confirmed as she looked at the same house.

"Well this doesn't look like any sort of hiding I'm familiar with."

Jaune was right. The house they were looking at was old and dilapidated, with loud music blasting out from inside, graffiti with various anti-faunus slogans covered the outside walls, rubbish littered the front yard and the same van used in the attack was parked right out the front.

"Look on the bright side. At least we know we're dealing with a bunch of idiots and don't have to worry about them having set up any traps." Yang commented.

As they started walking towards the building, Yang turned to her companion. "I probably should have asked this earlier, but you use maker magic right?"

"Yep," Replied Jaune proudly. "It's a pretty rare type actually, it's called Light Maker Magic. I actually came to Vale because I was trying to find out more about it."

"Huh," Yang replied as she processed this information. "So other than that shield you used earlier, what else can you make?"

"I can make a sword," Jaune proclaimed proudly.

"Cool." Came Yang's response. "So what can this sword do?"

Jaune had a look of confusion on his face. "It can cut stuff."

"And?"

"It can stab stuff?" Jaune said, sounding even more confused.

"So you're saying that you create a magical sword out of light and it just does what any ordinary sword can do?"

"Well it doesn't sound nearly as cool when you put it like that," said Jaune with a downtrodden expression.

"So do we actually have any sort of plan of attack?" Jaune asked as they approached the guarded door.

Yang smiled. "I only ever have one plan. Attack," as she said she climbed the few steps to the door and the guard stepped into her path. She punched him through the door without the slightest hesitation.

"Yeah, I was kinda afraid you would say that," Jaune admitted as he hurried to follow Yang into the house.

Upon entering the house Jaune realised that the inside was somehow even messier than the outside. He struggled to see a single piece of floor that wasn't covered in garbage and a single inch of wall that wasn't covered in bad graffiti, not to mention that now they were inside, the music had escalated from loud to near deafening.

Despite all the noise, Yang punching a guy through a door had somehow managed to get some attention. She was now standing halfway down the entry corridor, and staring down at least five guys at the far end that all seemed armed with guns that seemed way too high end for guys living in such a dump.

"Are you guys the assholes that attacked that bookshop earlier today?" Yang shouted over the music.

"Hell yeah we are," the tallest and most ripped of the thugs called out as he stepped forward.

This guy was clearly the leader of the bunch and as Jaune took in his appearance, from the shaved head, to the menacing tattoos and finally to the pistol he carried, that Jaune noted seemed to be about as big as his head, he cut quite the intimidating figure. Yet none of this seemed to even phase Yang in the slightest from what he could see standing behind her.

"In fact, the boys and I were just having a little victory party. So how about you tell your boyfriend to scram and join us? I sure we would all enjoy your company."  
Jaune wasn't sure what response the idiot was expecting, but he was pretty sure he wasn't expecting an aura of fire to explode out of Yang. Jaune took a step back in both surprise and to avoid the intense heat of the human inferno.

"First of all," Yang growled out. "He is not my boyfriend. Second, I'm not here for a party. I'm here for payback."

As the thugs realised the obvious danger in front of them they quickly raised their weapons. Thinking quickly, Jaune tried to conjure a shield just like he had in the bookstore, except this time instead of being above a family, in front of Yang.

"Light make: shield!"

Things did not go to plan. As Jaune was still pretty new to magic, he completely misjudged the distance. Instead of a shield about a meter in front of Yang, the shield appeared just in front of the raised guns of the gang a moment before they opened fire.

The result was instantaneous as bullets ricocheted off the construct and back into the assembled hoodlums. They quickly stopped firing before they sustained serious injury, but received no reprieve as Yang leapt right over the shield and punched out sending a fireball that scattered the thugs.

The terrified criminals tried to flee with Yang in hot pursuit. Jaune was about to follow when a side door opened next to him revealing another thug, this one armed with a shotgun. The two stared at each other in surprise for a moment before the thug aimed his shotgun and Jaune conjured another shield.

The shield protected him and Jaune heard his opponent cry out in pain as his shot ricocheted. Before he could recover, Jaune dropped the shield and punched his opponent in the jaw. The sucker punch was nothing fancy but it was enough to leave the hoodlum unconscious on the ground.

Jaune tried meet up with Yang, but was once again interrupted as a man stepped into the hallway from the far end with the biggest machine gun Jaune had ever seen. Without any element of surprise, Jaune knew he couldn't get a shield up in time, and instead dived through the door his last opponent came through as bullets tore through where he was a second ago.

Jaune spotted another door and ran to it hoping it lead to an adjoining room and not a cupboard. Just as he got close the door was opened, and instead of trying to stop he sped-up and barrelled straight into the unfortunate man who had been trying to use the door.

Looking around, Jaune noticed he was in what was once a laundry area but had been reduced to a garbage dump now.

On the far end was a door, and something told Jaune that this one lead to the far room that the original group of thugs had come from and so was also likely the same place where the dude with the big gun was. As much as the idea of facing off against that weapon scared him, he could hear the sound of fighting past that door, and that meant Yang was that way. If that's where Yang was, then that's where he was going.

He gingerly opened the door, and once he was sure no-one was waiting on the other side of the threshold, he peaked a kitchen area with a counter running around the edge, he ran and dived behind the counter and not a moment later gunfire tore up the ground behind him.

The gunfire then started cutting through the counter and ever closer to Jaune. Fortunately for him, the gun suddenly jammed and the thug started cursing as he tried to work out how to fix the gun. Seeing his chance, Jaune charged and as he did, he held his right hand out to the side.

"Light Make: Crocea Mors!"

As he said the words, white light gathered in his hands and took the shape of a long sword. Once formed, Jaune gripped it with both hands, and as soon as he was close enough he sliced up and cut clean through his opponent's weapon. As his momentum carried him forward, he brought the pommel of his weapon straight down on the man's head hard enough to knock him out.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Jaune took stock of his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that the music had stopped, likely due to the fact that there was a person in the stereo system, and Yang's rampaged had torn down multiple walls and started more than a few small spot fires.

Hearing footsteps coming from the corridor he had originally been in, he turned and faced the doorway just in time to see a red dust grenade, just like the ones from earlier, come sailing towards him.

Reacting purely on instinct, he swung his sword like a bat and smacked the grenade away. His eyes tracked the grenade, widening when they saw it was headed straight for a pile of weapons and ammunition.

"Oh shit."

Yang was not having a good time. She had been expecting this to be a walk in the park, just a bunch of idiots with guns, nothing she hadn't dealt with before.

She had not been expecting their leader to be a wizard as well. And this guy's magic was particularly annoying. He was able to turn his arms into metal, and had so far been able to use this to great effect to weather everything she could throw at him. He had even managed to land a few glancing hits of his own.

Their fight had caused serious damage to the house and brought them outside. Not to mention she had no idea where Jaune was or how he was faring in all this. _I've had had enough of this_. Yang decided it was time to use her trump card. She charged the gang leader and deliberately over reached with a right hook. A more skilled opponent may have realised the intentional opening and avoided it, but the gang leader was no such opponent.

He raised his left arm, already in metal form, and blocked the hook while retaliating with a steel punch straight to the middle of Yang's chest with his right hand. It was a solid hit and Yang was knocked off her feet and sent back a few meters.

"Have you had enough or do you want some more?" her idiot of an opponent gloated. As Yang got to her feet she could feel as her magic worked to turn the damage she had taken into power. Power she would send crashing into that moron's face.

Yang laughed. "You just activated my trap card."

With that magical energy once more exploded out of her in a fiery burst as she charged forward, ready to deliver an attack that would smash through any defence this guy could put up. But just before she made contact, the house erupted. An explosion tore the place apart and sent a large object flying out straight into the gang leader, taking him out in a single hit.

Yang stood stock still, capable of nothing but blinking as she tried to process what just happened. When the dust settled, Yang saw that the large object that had stolen her win was none other than Jaune, who was currently sitting on her opponent while rubbing his head and muttering something about 'never doing that again'.

Yang looked between the wreckage of the house and the blonde who looked surprisingly well off for someone in the middle of such an explosion. _How the hell does someone blow up a house with a sword and shield?_ Yang couldn't help but wonder.

"Hey Jaune?"

Jaune looked up as he seemed to notice her for the first time since his short flight "Oh, hey Yang."

"You haven't joined a wizard guild yet have you?" Yang asked.

"Nah, I just got to the city and only recently started magic. Why do ask?"

Yang smiled. "You heard of a guild called Beacon?"

* * *

 **AN: This is my first attempt at writing a fanfic for the RWBY fandom, so any constructive criticism is appreciated. As this fic is set in an AU inspired by Fairy Tail, there will be events that resemble events from there. However I will try my best to avoid making it too similar. To this effect I will not be including dragon slayer magic in my fic.**

 **Beta reader: Wyncrer the Sage**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Thank you everyone, who followed and favorited my story. As someone who is new to writing fanfiction, it was really great to see my writing get such a positive response. I would also like to address someone of the questions left in the reviews from last chapter**

 **Will this fic contain characters from Fairy Tail? No. This is not a crossover, so there wont be any of that.**

 **Will Weiss be an Ice-Maker wizard? And Pyrrha a Requip mage? Also no. For the same reason I'm not using dragon-slayer magic, I don't want this to be too close to Fairy Tail, that it just seems like a rip off.**

 **Editor/Beta-reader: Wyncrer the Sage (if you like Yu-gi-oh or OCs, check him out)**

* * *

The sun was just starting to set by the time Yang and Jaune stepped off the bullhead and onto Beacon. Yang had been expecting to see Jaune display the usual jaw dropping awe that most people showed when they first saw Beacon's grounds up close and in person.

Instead she was greeted by the sight of Jaune throwing up in the bushes. _Was this really the same person who destroyed a house full of criminals?_ When Jaune finished unloading the contents of his stomach into the bushes he finally looked around at the main avenue, the guild buildings and the surrounding area.

"Wow," Jaune exclaimed in awe as his eyes soaked in the sight. "I knew Beacon was big but this is incredible!"

"Just one of the perks of being one of the four biggest guilds in the world," Yang gloated. "Beacon has everything an aspiring wizard could want. Including, but not limited to, one of the largest libraries in the world, training rooms to polish your fighting style, or lots of open space if you feel like letting loose with magic. There's even dorms for those who wish to stay close to the action."

Jaune felt himself suddenly feeling a lot more daunted by the idea of joining such an incredible guild. "Do you really think they'll let me join?" he asked, his doubt and uncertainty clear in his voice.

"Don't worry," Yang said as she placed a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to be supportive. "You'll have me there to give you a glowing recommendation, and I don't do that for just anyone."

This seemed to give Jaune the confidence boost he needed as he smiled back at her. "I guess you're right."  
Yang beamed. "Of course I am."

To Jaune's surprise, the building Yang led them to was the dining hall. Yang told him this was where the majority of the guild would spend their time between jobs, as it also contained the noticeboard for new jobs. Upon entering Jaune found himself surprised again, an instance that seemed to be happening far more times than it had any right to today.

Instead of neat ordered rows he would expect of such an esteemed guild, he was met with the sight of almost half the tables hastily stacked on the far side of the hall with a small ginger girl standing at the top of the stack. As Jaune recovered from his shock he realised the ginger girl was laughing and chanting "I'm queen of the castle" repeatedly.

Before he could ask Yang for an explanation, the fire wizard declared "Oh hell no!" and stormed off towards the 'castle', leaving Jaune alone and utterly confused.

As Yang approached the stack, the ginger caught sight of her and stopped her chanting. "So you've returned Xiao Long," declared the small girl as though she were a monarch addressing one of her subjects. "You had taken so long, I was starting to think you had realised you were no match for me and run off."

Yang stopped in her tracks and roared up at the other girl. "How about you get down here and say that to my face, Valkyrie!"

The ginger, Valkyrie if Jaune had heard correctly, smiled as though that was exactly what she had been hoping to hear, an idea further cemented as she smiled and proclaimed, "Gladly!"

Jaune watched on speechless as the small girl leaped from her perch, landing in front of a table loaded with watermelons, which was promptly hurled at her opponent. Yang, never one to be outdone, snatched a pair of whole turkeys from a nearby table and put them on as though they were gloves. Appropriately equipped she faced the barrage of watermelons head on.

"It's a food fight from hell," Jaune muttered to himself as he watched the ensuing carnage.

"You must be new here," a clipped voice spoke up from next to him.

Jaune looked at towards the source and was met with the sight of a girl dressed in a combination of white and pale blue, with her white hair in an off-centre ponytail."If you had been here for even a day you would be use to such antics. In fact, this is actually pretty tame for those two." The girl continued without looking at him, before giving out an exasperated sigh. "I wish Pyrrha would hurry up and get back so there will finally be someone capable of keeping those two in line."

Jaune was about to say something until he realised the fight seemed to be coming to a climax.

The two girls seemed to have exhausted all food supplies nearby but had clearly not lost any of their will to fight. If anything they looked more excited than ever. _Maybe excited is the wrong word_ , Jaune thought as he looked at the vicious grins they both sported. Without another word being uttered, fire ignited around Yang's fist and she charged. Her opponent answered in kind, with an explosion released from her hands rocketing her forwards.

As the two were about to collide a third figure dropped down between them and held out his palms, which seemed to glow with a weird energy, towards each of the combatants. Instead of the interloper being utterly annihilated by the pair, Yang's fire and Valkyrie's explosions died out as soon as their fists came in contact with the open palms. Jaune was awe struck by the impressive display of power.

"Is that the Pyrrha person you mentioned?" Jaune asked the white haired girl next to him.

"What? No!" the girl declared as though he were some kind of idiot. "That's Ren. And while his ability to negate the magic of others is useful, he can't really be counted on to keep them in line, as Nora practically has him wrapped around her little finger."

"And Nora would be?" Jaune queried.

"Nora Valkyrie. The one your fellow blonde was just trading blows with."

"Oh, right."

With the fight brought to abrupt conclusion, Yang, much to Jaune's relief, was coming back to where she had left her new friend.

"Sorry about that, I had to take care of some business," Yang said nonchalantly as she approached. "Good to see you're already getting to know some of the people around here. How you doing Weiss?"

The girl in white, Weiss as he now knew, spoke with an icy tone when she addressed Yang. "You were expected back before midday Xiao Long. It's almost night time now. What took you so long?"

"Nice to see you too, ice queen," Yang said bitterly. "What's wrong with me being a little late anyway? Did you miss me?"

Weiss let out a small mocking laugh. "Don't flatter yourself. I was just counting the seconds until there was someone else for your sister to bother. I tried to send her Blake's way except she got herself kicked out of the infirmary for being disruptive."

"Oh hey that reminds me, I've actually got something for Blake. Hey Weiss, would you mind taking Jaune to see Master Ozpin? Thanks." Without waiting for a reply Yang ran out the door as Weiss reached after her trying to voice a complaint about being volunteered as a guide.

With the departure of Yang, the two were left in an awkward silence. "So, uh. I'm Jaune by the way. Jaune Arc." Jaune said as he extended a hand for Weiss to shake.

"Weiss Schnee."

She said her name as if it were meant to mean something as she reluctantly took Jaune's hand and gave it a brief shake. The two stood in silence once again as Weiss looked at Jaune as though she were expecting something.

"So where do we go to find this Ozpin guy?" Jaune asked.

Weiss blinked in what Jaune could only guess was surprise, over what he had no idea, before her eyes focused. "It's Master Ozpin. And he's this way."

Weiss and Jaune walked through the guild grounds side by side, with Jaune constantly turning his head as he tried to take in all the sights the guild grounds provided.

"This place is amazing!" Jaune exclaimed, breaking the silence between the two. "I still can't get over how big this place is."

"Did you honestly expect any less from one of the four biggest guilds in Remnant?" Weiss asked with a slightly smug tone to her voice.

"Honestly I didn't know what to expect." Jaune replied honestly before a thought occurred to him "You, and Yang, mentioned it was one of the four biggest guilds in the world. Who are the other three?"

Weiss gave him a look that suggested she was trying to figure just how big the rock he had been living under was. "There's Atlas, in the kingdom with the same name, Haven in Mistral and Shade in Vacuo. Each of these guilds were founded around the same time the Great War ended about eighty years ago."

"Huh. I kinda expected a place like this to be a little older," Jaune commented

"This guilds history, relatively brief as it may be, is still a proud one. If you seriously intend to join this guild, do so knowing your actions affect a reputation eighty years in the making." With that Weiss increased her pace clearly indicating that there was to be no more conversation.

Master Ozpin's office, Jaune realised, was in Beacon Tower. Either that or Weiss was planning on calling him using the Cross Continental Transmit System.

The first option was proved correct as Weiss pressed the button for the top floor the moment they were in the elevator. When the doors open on the top floor Weiss gestured for him to exit first. Jaune stepped out expecting Weiss to be coming out behind him, and was instead surprised by the sound of the doors closing behind him as the elevator went back down. With what he assumed was the only way out gone, Jaune looked around the room he had been deposited in.

The first thing he noticed was the noise, the sound of clockwork as the massive gears just above the office went around and round. That and the view out the window on the far side that made him realise just how far up they were.

The office itself was surprisingly bare when it came to furnishings, with the only pieces being a curved desk with a chair behind it. And in this chair was the man himself. Guild Master Ozpin, leader of Beacon. Jaune had heard of the man before, of course the same could be said for just about every person on Remnant, but seeing him in person felt more incredible than anything else he had done that day.

"Hello there." Ozpin said, looking completely unfazed by some stranger walking into his office. "I don't believe we've met mister…?"

"Jaune. Jaune Arc." The nervous teen quickly offered as he moved forward with his hand out stretched. As he arrived at the desk the Guild Master stood and shook his hand with a gentle smile

"So what brings you to my office so late in the day Mr Arc?"

"I, uh, I met one of your guild members, Yang, in the city and she seemed to think I would fit in well here."

"Does this meeting with Ms Xiao Long, by any chance, have anything to do with the reports I've been hearing of a burnt down bookstore or a blown up house?"

"Uh, both actually. B-but we aren't responsible for what happened. Well I guess I am kinda responsible for what happened to the house but that was a total accident."

"I see."

Silence descended on the room. Just before Jaune's nerves hit critical level the elevator re-opened and out walked Yang. "Hey Master. Seems you two have gotten the introductions out of the way," Yang said with the same careless confidence he was quickly learning to expect from her.

"Indeed we have. In fact, Mr Arc here was just informing me of your involvement in a couple of incidents in Vale today." Ozpin answered. Jaune didn't miss the slight accusatory tone in his voice.

"Believe it or not, neither of those two were my fault. Heck the house explosion was his handy work," Yang replied as she pointed at Jaune.

"Yes I do recall him mentioning something of the sort. Now would you be so kind as to fill me in on the whole story here?"

Jaune just stood silently as Yang gave the Guild Master her report. Throughout the tale he couldn't help but notice how she was wording the story. While nothing she was saying was wrong, she was focusing on certain aspects, leaving out a couple details and slightly exaggerating others. And all these changes worked towards the same goal.

She was trying to make him look good. Or at least better than he actually was. When she had finished Ozpin turned his head to look directly at Jaune. The man's eyes seemed to pick apart every piece of him at the same time it stared into his very soul. In short it was a very uncomfortable experience for Jaune.

"Why do you want to join Beacon, Mr. Arc?" the Guild Master finally asked.

"I want to help people," Jaune's answer was immediate. "I see magic as my best chance to make good on that. To do that I need to be better than I am right now and, from what Yang's told me, Beacon is the best place for me to do that."

"A very noble goal. In this situation I agree with Ms Xiao Long's assessment. I believe you will fit right in at Beacon," Ozpin decreed.

"Can you please say that again?" Yang cut in, shattering the reverence of the moment for Jaune. "I want to set you saying you agree with me as my ringtone."

"Ignoring Ms Xiao Long," Ozpin continued. "Please step forward and receive your guild emblem." Jaune stepped forward towards the desk as Ozpin revealed an item that looked like a stamp. "Now where would you like your emblem?" The Master asked him.

Jaune panicked momentarily as he realised that other than his head, neck and finger tips, he was showing no skin, leaving little space for an emblem. He quickly scrambled to pull his right glove off, as though if he took too long Ozpin would change his mind. With his hand uncovered and held out, Ozpin pressed the 'stamp' down on the back of his palm and when it came away Jaune bore a white symbol of two crossed axes inside a laurel wreath. The guild emblem of Beacon. A sign to all the world that he was a true wizard.

"Now, if that's all you two came here for, I believe your sister has been looking for you Ms Xiao Long. And while you're at it, would you mind showing Mr Arc the ropes?"

Seeing the dismissal for what it was the two got back into the elevator and pressed the button for the ground floor. As the elevator descended Jaune could do nothing but stare in awe at the emblem on his hand.

"It's a pretty cool feeling isn't?" Yang asked

"I-it's incredible," Jaune murmured not taking his eyes away from the emblem. "You've got one these too right?"

"Yep," replied Yang. "I got mine right here."

As she said the last part she pointed towards her exposed midriff where a yellow Beacon emblem could be seen. Jaune broke his vision away from his own emblem in favour of looking at Yang's.

"It better be my emblem you're looking at," Yang warned after Jaune didn't look away.

"Yeah, sure, emblem," Jaune replied half-heartedly as he continued to stare, only to start apologizing profusely when his companion burst into flames.

It was only a minute later the two returned to the dining hall, now not just friends, but fellow guild members. They had only taken a few steps before a red torpedo came hurtling through the air towards Yang. As the missile impacted Yang, it materialized into a small girl with a red cape that wrapped her arms Yang, who staggered back from the impact.

"Yang I'm so glad your back!" the small girl cried out.

"Hey Ruby. Good to see you too," Yang replied once she had regained her balance. "Now would you mind explaining, why you felt the urge to crash into me the moment I came inside?"

"That's cause I have something really important, that I need to tell you." Ruby responded instantly, before taking a deep breath.

"Oobleckwentonaquestafewdaysagoandhehasn'tcomebacksincewhichhasmereallyworriedcausehesaiditwouldtakelessthanaday."

"Ah, what?" Jaune asked, bringing the attention of the two female wizards to him.

Ruby leaned up and whispered into Yang's ear, "Who's he?"

"Ruby, this is Jaune. He's our guild's newest member. Jaune, this is my sister Ruby," Yang supplied before turning back to Ruby. "Now what was that you were saying bout Oobleck? And try to keep it at a pace that I can understand this time."

"Oobleck went on a quest to Mount Glenn a few days ago and he hasn't come back since, which has me really worried, cause he said it would take less than a day. I want to go look for him, but everyone keeps telling me to just wait. Can you please come with me to go look for him? Please, please, please?"

"I don't know," Yang said, before pausing as a smile slowly spread across her face. "Actually, yeah let's do it. Master Ozpin told me to show Jaune the ropes, and what better way than on the job experience?"

* * *

Jaune quickly discovered that his second flight in a bullhead was every bit as bad as his first, only a whole lot longer. Honestly, Jaune impressed himself with the fact that he was able to wait the entire flight before throwing up. When he finished emptying out his stomach contents, he made his way back over to the sisters who were studying a map on Ruby's scroll.

"So any idea where to look?" Jaune asked as he arrived in front of them.

"Where just checking that now," Yang replied. "All guild members have a function on their scrolls, that allows fellow guild members to locate them. The bullhead put us down not far from Oobleck's last known location, as his scroll is no longer sending out a signal."

Jaune didn't even need to ask about the implications of what that meant. Ruby's nervous fidgeting was enough of an indication. It wasn't long before they reached their destination as, true to Yang's words, they had been dropped off close by. What they found only raised more questions. An empty campsite, Oobleck's, according to both Yang and Ruby, hidden away inside a ruined building.

"No dust has settled on any of the stuff, looks like he was here recently," Ruby said as she examined the site.

"But the signal went out the night he left," Yang added "I guess we can rule out an attack being the reason for the signal dropping out."

"Maybe," Jaune said uncertainly. "Is it possible that someone could have blocked the signal?"

"It's not unheard of," Yang answered, as her brow creased in concern. "But that would suggest that someone lured him here."

"Not to mention that with the signal blocked, he would have no way to call for help or extraction," Ruby added. "We need to get out there and look for him now. Even if they haven't gotten him yet, that doesn't mean he isn't in trouble."

Just as they were about to set off, they heard voices coming from outside. "The scouts said they saw movement over this way. Let's look around and see if we can find anything." The trio quickly took cover behind the damaged walls. Ruby cautiously took a peak around her cover, only to gasp and quickly duck back behind cover.

"Who is it?" Yang asked in a whisper.

"The White Fang," came Ruby's whispered response.

Before Yang could say any more, she heard the sound of bricks collapsing on each other, as years of exposure finally took their toll, and a startled Jaune was deposited at the feat of a White Fang wizard.

In what was quickly becoming a far too regular occurrence, Jaune desperately summoned a shield to protect himself, at the same time his opponent launched an attack of his own.

"Light make: shield!"

"Air magic: blast!"

Luckily, Jaune was able to get his shield up first, and the White Fang wizard got blasted by his own spell, launching him clear into the air. For a moment everything was silent, as the five other members of the White Fang, stared at their airborne comrade.

The momentary peace was shattered as Yang emerged from behind her own cover, and released a torrent of fire. The attack took out one enemy and scattered the others, with one coming at Jaune, who was still on his back, with a sword. As the sounds of magic and gunfire filled the air, Jaune desperately scrambled back, trying to put distance between him and his new opponent.

Unfortunately crawling was a lot slower than running, and Jaune quickly found himself rolling to the side to avoid a strike. Jaune stood up only to duck down again to avoid a second attack, and in doing so put himself in the perfect position to be struck by a quickly rising knee.

The hit had Jaune staggering sideways as his head swam. Jaune tried to summon a construct put he found himself unable to string two thoughts together as the White Fang wizard moved towards him with sword raised.

"L-li-light," Jaune tried.

Just as the sword was about to come down, the wizard was grabbed from behind and spun into a fire coated right hook. Having dealt with the threat, Yang helped Jaune steady himself. As Jaune's vision cleared, he noticed all other members of the White Fang had already been taken out. And in the middle of them stood Ruby, holding a red and black scythe that seemed about twice her size.

"You ok there?" Yang asked with obvious concern. "Looks like you took a pretty hard knock."

"I'm fine now, thanks. Though I think I'm going to have a headache for the rest of the week," Jaune replied. Before anymore could be said, Ruby approached the two and started talking urgently.

"We need to get moving. During the fight, one of those guys said something about how there was only meant to be one wizard. That proves that they are looking for Oobleck. If we hurry, we might be able to find him before they do."

Instead of answering her sister, Yang turned to Jaune. "You able to keep moving?"

"Yeah I'm good," Jaune said as he tried to give an encouraging smile. "Let's get going."

The next hour was spent searching the ruined city, and fighting any groups of White Fang they came across. The fighting was done almost entirely by Yang and Ruby, as Jaune struggled to keep pace with them as they ran.

It was just as Jaune was feeling that he was getting too exhausted to run anymore, they found him. A tall man in a long brown great coat, khaki buttoned safari shirt, and a pith helmet, who casually strolled out of a ruined building.

"Dr Oobleck!" Ruby called out, as she used her magic to cross the distance in a blink of an eye. "We've been looking everywhere for you," she said, her voice filled with excitement and relief. "I was so worried when you didn't come back. And then I found out your signal disappeared. And then we get here and find out the White Fang are after you. Are you okay?"

The tall man looked down at her with surprise for a few moments before he composed himself. "I assure you, I am quite alright. Now what was this you said about the White Fang?"

"The White Fang are here in Mount Glenn. Not just that, but they were trying to catch you," Ruby answered.

"Are you sure? I wasn't aware the White Fang were in the area," Dr Oobleck questioned.

"Yeah, we're sure," Yang cut in. "We had to fight a whole bunch of them trying to find you. If you didn't even know they were here, why haven't you returned to the guild yet?"

"Why that's simple, Ms Xiao Long. I decided once I finished clearing out the local grimm, that I would take this rare opportunity to look around these ruins. Why, the building I just left was the former headquarters of Merlot Industries, a place that once housed some of the most advanced research facilities on the planet. Sadly, after all these years there wasn't much left."

"Wait, wait, wait. So, I can understand hanging back a few days, but why didn't you message the guild? And why did you scroll stop transmitting? We thought you had been attacked," Yang questioned, as she found herself getting increasing frustrated with the doctor.

"Well that's quite simple actually," Oobleck explained as he held up his perfectly intact scroll. "I forgot to charge it before I left." Yang and Ruby face-palmed, as Jaune stared at the three with an expression of confused disbelief.

"Let's just hurry up and get home. I think I'm ready for today to end," Yang said tiredly.

* * *

A few hours later, Yang and Jaune were sitting in the dining hall back at Beacon. "So do most jobs go like that?" Jaune asked.

"Nah," Yang replied. "There's usually a lot more action. Plus, there's usually an actual reason why we're out there, nothing like what happened today. Besides, today wasn't actually a job."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, unless it's been posted on the noticeboard, and there's someone paying you to do it, it's not a job."

"Oh. That makes sense I guess." A moment of silence passed between the two. "I don't think your sister likes me very much. She barely talked to me the whole trip."

"I wouldn't worry about that, Ruby likes everyone. It's just that, the thing with Oobleck had her really on edge. He isn't just another guild member to her. He uses a similar type of magic to her, and when we arrived at Beacon he took her under his wing," Yang explained.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Are you sure Ruby is going to be okay reporting everything that happened to Ozpin?" Jaune asked.

"Yeah. She'll be fine, shouldn't be any problems at all," Yang answered.

She had only just finished speaking before her scroll started ringing. Yang opened up the scroll and answered with a quick "What up?" only to realise it was Ozpin that had called her. If the master was at all fazed by her unorthodox greeting, he didn't show it.

"Good afternoon Ms Xiao Long. Could you please come to my office as soon as possible? I have something I must discuss with you." With that said he ended the call.

"Maybe I spoke to soon," Yang thought out loud as she put her scroll away. "Well, no point leaving the old man waiting." With that Yang stood up and started making her way to the exit, with a "Wish me luck!" called out to Jaune as a goodbye.

Yang slumped into the seat across from the Guild Master and gave a cheery smile as she said "So what did you want to talk about?"

"I wished to talk to you about your excursion to Mount Glenn earlier today. In particular I want to talk about the performance of our guild's newest member."

The smile on Yang's face lessened but didn't disappear. "I thought Ruby already told you all about it?"

"She did. My only concern is that, what she described of Jaune's abilities, seems directly opposed to what you told me."

Yang straightened in her chair. "I didn't lie about what I told you!" she argued.

"I never accused you of such," Ozpin said as he put his hands out in a placating gesture. "But have you considered the possibility, that what he accomplished on the day you met, was a fluke?"  
Yang sat in silence, not sure how to respond. "I do believe that Mr Arc has potential, but the fact remains, he is not yet ready to deal with the level of danger that wizards of Beacon are expected to handle." Ozpin paused to let his words sink in, and take a sip of his coffee

"Since it was you who decided to bring Mr Arc here, from here on, it will be your responsibility to train him. And in case you need some motivation, know that the results of your training will determine whether or not I accept your application for this year's S-class trials."

* * *

 **AN: Next chapter marks the start of the first story arc I have planned.**

 **If you have any suggestions for the type of magic for Junior and the Malachite twins, I would love to hear it.**

 **Next Chapter: PYRRHA! Other things as well, but most importantly Pyrrha.**


	3. Get Junior

**AN: Finally managed to get this chapter finished. Would have had this up a lot sooner but university and exams had other plans. Will try to update more frequently from now on.**

* * *

 **Beta reader/editor: Wyncrer the Sage**

* * *

It was mid-morning when a bullhead landed on Beacon grounds. As the side doors opened, a woman with brilliant red hair and bronze armour stepped out.

As soon as she was clear, the door closed again and the bullhead started to fly towards the hangar. The woman watched it go, waving politely to the pilot that had flown her to Beacon. When it was gone, she turned towards the awe-inspiring site of Beacon's grounds and smiled. "It's good to be back."

Yang had a problem. A very serious problem. She had to somehow train up a guy with a completely different magic style to her own, who also had just about no combat training. If she was going to pull this off, she was going to need to make some tough decisions. Which brought her to where she was now.

"Four months," Weiss Schnee demanded.

"Two," Yang countered.

"Three," Weiss offered after some hesitation.

"Two and a half, that's as far as I'm willing to go," Yang claimed with steely determination. The two girls glared at each other across the dining hall table.

"Fine. It's better than nothing I suppose," Weiss eventually relented with a sigh. "Give me a couple days and I should have something by then." With this said, Weiss got up from her seat, and left the hall in the direction of the library.

As Weiss walked off, Ruby walked up and took the seat she had vacated. "Mind explaining what that was all about?" Ruby asked.

"A deal with the devil," Yang responded, sounding none too pleased about it.

"Uh?"

Yang sighed. "Weiss is going to do some research into Jaune's magic and teach him whatever she learns. In exchange, for the next two and a half months… I can't make _any_ puns about Weiss' name." As she said the last part, her head slumped onto the table.

"Why would you agree to that?" Ruby asked.

"Actually I was the one asking her," Yang corrected. Seeing the confusion in her sisters face she decided to elaborate. "Ozpin told me that if I can train Jaune up, he'll let me take the S-class trial this year."

"Wow, that's so cool!" Ruby said excitedly, before a thought occurred to her. "Wait a sec. Are you just trying to get other people to train Jaune for you?"

"Well duh," Yang casually replied. "It's not like his magic or combat style has anything in common with mine, so what could I teach him?"

Ruby frowned. "That's not the point. Yang –"

Before Ruby could say any more, the doors to the dining hall burst open and a single figure strode in. Everyone in the hall went quiet and looked to the newcomer.  
"Pyrrha's back!" someone called out and just like that the hall erupted into cheers, with everyone welcoming the red-haired wizard home.

When the noise and everyone's excitement started to die down, Ruby turned back to her sister to continue talking, only to be cut-off as Yang rose off her seat. "Later Rubes. I've got some more recruiting to do."

Pyrrha had only just arrived but already she could feel herself relaxing among the familiar faces and environment of the guild. In fact, there was only one thing left before she would be feeling completely at home.

"Hey P-money!" A voice as cheerful as it was aggressive called out. Without even needing to look, Pyrrha slipped her shield onto her left arm and raised it to protect her face. Just in time to intercept the flaming fist of Beacon's strongest fire wizard.

"Hello to you too Yang. Good to see you're as energetic as ever," Pyrrha greeted politely as she lowered her shield, completely unfazed by the attack.

"And it seems you're still living up to the title of 'The Invincible Girl'," Yang replied, as she massaged the knuckles on the hand that had punched Pyrrha's shield. "Speaking of which, I think I might have a challenge for you. Something you've never done before."

"I'm listening," Pyrrha said with a smile, deciding to hear Yang out.

"Teaching," Yang declared.

Pyrrha was silent for a moment before she started speaking, the polite smile never falling from her face "While I'm flattered that you would ask this of me, I'm afraid there isn't much I would be able to teach you." As Yang stared at her with mouth agape she continued, placing an encouraging hand on Yang's shoulder. "I know it can get frustrating at times, but if you keep going as you are, you will become a great wizard in no time. Of that I'm sure."

"I'm not the one who needs the teacher!" Yang spluttered out, her eyes turning red for an instant.

"Oh," Pyrrha replied as she started to feel the embarrassment of her mistake. "I apologise for assuming. But if you don't mind me asking, if it wasn't for you, who did you want a teacher for?"

"You wouldn't know him," Yang started explain, as eager as Pyrrha to forget about the wrong assumption. "He only joined a couple days ago. Name's Jaune. Ozpin asked me to show him the ropes. Anyway, he seems to have a thing for swords and shields, but no idea how to use them. I was thinking that since you also use those, you might be able to teach him to fight."

Pyrrha paused as she mulled the idea over. After moments that seemed like an eternity for the eagerly waiting Yang, she opened her mouth to give her response. Only to be cut off by a loud voice calling out from across the hall.

"Yang! Hey Yang!" Jaune shouted as he jogged towards his fellow blonde. As he arrived and paused for a moment to catch his breath, Yang opened her mouth to introduce him to Pyrrha, only to have Jaune start talking again.

"Hey Yang, everyone in the guild is talking about some big shot, called Pyrrha Nikos, returning today. Isn't that the person you were telling me about on our way back from Mount Glenn? You know, the one you were saying was a monster, a total demon and a nightmare given human form?" As Jaune listed off how Yang had described Pyrrha, Yang's face got progressively paler.

Finally realising that Yang hadn't been alone when he arrived, Jaune turned to her red-haired companion. "I'm sorry, where are my manners. I'm Jaune, Jaune Arc. And you are?" Jaune said as he extended his hand for her to shake.

Pyrrha looked at Jaune with a mix confusion, surprise and something else Jaune couldn't recognise, before schooling her expression back into a polite smile and reaching out to return the hand shake. "A pleasure to meet you Jaune. I'm Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos."

Jaune paled as he realised what he had just done. "I. Am. So. Sorry. I _really_ should have known Yang was saying that stuff to mess with me. I'm still new here, so I guess I'm not used to her sense of humour yet."

"Oh, I'm sure it's no fault of your own. Though I'll have to talk to Yang later about her jokes." As Pyrrha was saying this, Yang turned around and tried to quietly slip away while Pyrrha was distracted. Only to feel Pyrrha's hand clamp down on her shoulder. "Why are you leaving now Yang? Isn't this the guy you were telling me about?"

"Ah, yeah, that would be him," Yang replied nervously, knowing Pyrrha's 'talk' would come in the form of a brutally one sided spar.  
Pyrrha turned back to Jaune, but kept her grip on Yang. "I was told you use a sword and shield, yet you don't see to have any weapons on you."

"Well that's because I make them with my magic," Jaune explained, eager to move past his blunder.

"So am I to understand that you don't have any sort of non-magical weapon?" Pyrrha inquired.

"Ah, yeah?" Jaune said, his words coming out more as a question, than a statement.

"I would have thought that you would have taken care of at least this, Yang." Pyrrha said, releasing her grip on Yang as the blonde woman offered a meek 'oops' in her defence. "It is standard practice among wizards to have a non-magical weapon to supplement their magic. While magic is useful, we can only use so much before we run out of magical energy. Hence a weapon that doesn't rely on magic is an important part of every wizard's arsenal," Pyrrha explained.

Addressing the two blondes she announced, "While I'll have to give some thought before I agree to train anyone, the least I can do as a wizard of Beacon is help you find a weapon."

"What was that about training?" Jaune asked, as Yang breathed a sigh of relief, realising her plan might still be salvageable.

* * *

One bullhead ride and Jaune throwing up in a trash can later, the trio arrived in Vale. Yang and Pyrrha, being the more experienced in Vale, led the way towards the nearest weapon shop while Jaune trailed behind.

Yang and Pyrrha walked next to each without a word, an awkward silence hanging between them.

"So…" Pyrrha said, breaking the silence. "Mind explaining why you are trying to get a teacher for Jaune?"

"I already told you," Yang replied "Master Ozpin told me to show him the ropes."

"If that were truly the case, you would have dealt with this yourself. Instead you ask an S-class wizard to teach him. For some reason, you don't just need him competent, you need him to be good. The only person I've known you to go this far for is Ruby."

Yang let out a sigh, as she accepted that she had been caught out "Guess I really should have seen this coming. You didn't become the youngest S-class wizard in history for nothing. Truth be told, Jaune isn't up to the standard of the rest of us at the guild. He got in by recommendation, _my_ recommendation to be specific. So, Ozpin said that I have to get him up to standard and he said that if I was able to train him well, I could participate in the S-class trials this year."

Pyrrha nodded. "I think I understand, but why are you in such a hurry to make S-class? We both know if you weren't accepted into the trials this year, it wouldn't be long until you were."

"What can I say, I'm not a patient person. Besides, S-class quests are where all the fun is and you know me, I'm always looking for a thrill. It's why I became a wizard in the first place," Yang answered with a smile.

"If you're going to lie to me, you should at least try to make it more believable." When Yang started to argue her defence, Pyrrha interrupted. "Everyone who knows you knows you became a wizard because Ruby was, and you wanted to look out for her." As the two continued their conversation, they failed to notice Jaune had stopped walking and was looking at a shop window.

"That aside, I won't be training Jaune." Pyrrha finished.

"What?! Why the hell not?" Yang argued.

"Because this is obviously a test for you," Pyrrha calmly replied.

Before she could continue, the two heard shouts coming from the direction they came from. They turned to see three men in black suits and matching hats drag a struggling Jaune towards a van.

Pyrrha and Yang rushed towards Jaune, only for one of the suited men to turn to them. Seeing him from the front, they saw that he also had red sunglasses, a tie, and a cigar in his mouth. As the duo got close, he removed the cigar and blew out a large cloud of thick black smoke, a cloud so large it could only have been magical.

This was confirmed as it further grew and enveloped the two women. As soon as Yang entered the cloud, she lost sight of everything, the smoke so thick she could barely see her own hand in front of her. The moment she took a breath she regretted it. She heard coughing beside her and knew Pyrrha was having as hard a time as she was.

The sound of a car pulling out alerted her to the fact that Jaune's assailants were escaping. Yang summoned flames and blasted the smoke away, just in time to see the van disappear around the corner.

"Shit!" Yang yelled as she punched a wall.

"It's okay," Pyrrha reassured between coughs.

"Jaune just got kidnapped! How the hell is this okay?" Yang argued.

"Because we can track his location using his scroll," Pyrrha countered, seeing Yang freeze she added "You did remember to install the app on his scroll, right?"

"I was getting around to it," Yang offered weakly. Seeing the disappointment on Pyrrha's face she quickly added, "But I might have another lead for us to follow." At this, Pyrrha's expression turned from disappointment to interest. "Those guys that kidnapped him, they looked like members of the Black Bear guild."

"That's good. Do you know how to get there?"

"Yep, and my bike isn't far from here."

"Lead the way."

* * *

Yang lead the way into the club that doubled as the Black Bear guild hall. It was around midday and so the only other occupants were members of the guild. All of them wearing the same black suit, with the red tie and sunglasses. Yang scanned the room for the Guild Master. A wasted effort when a voice called out from the bar.

"Welcome back Xiao Long. Do you need some more information?"

The owner of the voice was a tall man, with short hair and a neatly trimmed beard, wearing a white dress, with a black vest and a red tie, and was waving them towards the bar. This was Hei Xiong, more commonly known as Junior and the Guild Master of the Black Bear guild.

"You could say that," Yang replied, struggling to keep her anger in check, as they had no idea what sort of danger Jaune was in.

"Well before we get down to business, I just wanted to thank you." He must have seen the confusion on her face, because he continued. "That tip-off you gave me in exchange for information on that gang turned out to be really useful. We had a request up on our board from some mad scientist type guy, asking for rare magic users to use in his experiments. As it happens, that blonde boy you told me about was just what the doctor ordered."

Yang felt her stomach drop and she didn't even need to turn to know Pyrrha was glaring at her. As Junior laughed to himself Yang felt her rage reaching breaking point and stepped forward, only to have Pyrrha's arm block her. Looking at her red-haired companion, Yang saw she was indeed glaring, not at her, but Junior.

"That 'blonde boy' is a member of our guild. And if you know what's good for you, you will tell us where he is. Or better yet, return him to us this instant." Pyrrha's voice was cold, and carried a tone that promised pain to all that defied her.

"Sorry but that's not going to happen," Junior said, his voice now void of any hint that he was in a pleasant mood. "Not even for the great Pyrrha Nikos."

With that said he clicked his fingers, and all the guild members milling around the club surrounded the two Beacon wizards with weapons drawn.

"Now I'm going to have to ask you to leave," Junior said as he donned his own pair of red sunglasses and walked away from the bar.

"We're not leaving until you tell us where he is!" Yang called out, causing Junior to pause.

"Then I guess my boys are going to have to throw you out," he replied without turning around.

Yang and Pyrrha looked at the myriad of swords, axes and firearms facing them. "Isn't this a bit unfair. His whole guild against the two of us," Yang commented as she cracked her knuckles.

"Indeed," Pyrrha agreed. "For this to be a fair fight there would have to be some sort of handicap."

"What? Like, we fight with a hand tied behind our back?" Yang asked as some of the Black Bear members looked between themselves in confusion.

"Yeah, something like that. And if we weren't in a hurry, I might have taken you up on that suggestion. But right now, we just don't have the time."

As Pyrrha finished speaking, one of the decorative pillars around the dancefloor tore itself out it's foundations and swept across the assembled Black Bear wizards.

Yang and Pyrrha strode over the downed wizards, towards the startled Guild Master.

"Feel a bit more like co-operating now?" Yang asked as she extended her weapon, Ember Celica, into its gauntlet form.

"Miltia! Melanie! Where the hell are you?!" the scared Guild master shouted.

"We're like, right here," a girl in a white dress answered as she entered the hall from one of the back rooms, with a near identical girl dressed in red.

"Well don't just stand there! Stop them!" Junior roared.

"I'll deal with these two. You make sure he doesn't escape," Pyrrha commanded.

Yang nodded in response before running after Junior, who was attempting to distance himself from the Beacon wizards. Pyrrha faced down the twins, taking note of the metal claws wielded by the girl in red, and the bladed heals of the one in white.

"Isn't this like, that Pyrrha chick?" the red twin asked.

"You're right Miltia," the one in white, Melanie, replied. "And if we beat the 'Invincible Girl', we'll be like, super famous."

With this, a dark gas coalesced around Miltia's claws and the temperature dropped several degrees. Poison magic and ice magic, Pyrrha noted, but said nothing as she readied her own weapons and charged.

Miltia ran forward to meet her, while Melanie swept her foot across the floor, creating a layer of ice on the ground in front of Pyrrha. Undaunted by the icy ground, Pyrrha dropped to her knees and slid across the ice on her greaves, slipping under Miltia's claws as she sped towards Melanie. As she got close, she stabbed her sword into the icy ground, then extended it into its javelin form, lifting herself off the ground without losing any momentum. Now airborne, Pyrrha aimed both her feet at Melanie's head.

To her credit, Melanie dodged the attack by dodging to the side at the last second. As Pyrrha landed she switched her weapon back to sword form and turned to face her opponents, who now looked a lot less sure of themselves.

While this was happening, Yang used her flames to launch herself across the hall towards Junior. As she got close, she cut the flames and brought her right hand back to deliver a crushing right hook, only to have Junior step to the side and hold out his arm, clothes-lining Yang. Yang hit the ground hard and barely avoided Junior's attempt to stomp on her head. She climbed to her feet and faced off with the Guild Master, who now wore a smug grin.

With a roar, Yang sent a volley of fireballs and red dust shells at Junior. To Yang's surprise, the large Guild Master dodged and evaded every one of them. With an explosive release of fire and another roar, Yang charged in and delivered a blistering series of jabs, hooks, uppercuts and kicks, all of which was for naught as Junior blocked, parried and dodged everything she threw at him. Realising she was getting nowhere, Yang jumped back out of Junior's reach.

"Having a bit of trouble?" Junior asked with the same smug grin he started with. Yang didn't respond so Junior continued. "You remember my archive magic?" he asked as, with a quick gesture, he summoned a series of blood red panels into the air around him. On these panels was various information, and on one was a picture of Yang.

"Well a fun little trick I can do with this is if I have seen someone fight before, I can use it to predict how they will attack next," he announced proudly.

Pyrrha dived out of the way as her two opponents tried to overwhelm her with a mix of physical and magical attacks. On top of having to keep track of both their weapons, she also had to watch out for patches of floor that would suddenly be covered in ice, and a variety of other ice based attacks Melanie would send her way.

Miltia on the other hand posed a whole different problem. The poisonous gas around her claws was so corrosive that she couldn't block it and would often find herself leaping away from tendrils extending from Miltia's claws. Pyrrha dove to the side as skewers of ice erupted from the ground, only to jump backwards a moment later as a tendril of poisonous gas came down and dissolved the ground where she had been.

Holding out against these two hadn't been easy, but she had managed and now that she knew how they fought, it was time to go on the offensive. Pyrrha slammed her left hand into the ground, and behind her, the swords and axes of the fallen wizards lifted off the ground, covered in a black aura.

The weapons then shot out towards the twins, Melanie defending herself with a wall of ice, while Miltia met the weapons coming towards her with a wave of her poison. As the poison dissipated, Miltia was greeted with the sight of Pyrrha hurtling towards her with shield raised. The Beacon wizard struck her target, knocking the girl in red off her feet, hard enough to make sure she wouldn't be getting up for a while.

With only one enemy left, Pyrrha turned just in time to intercept the first in a blinding volley of kicks. Melanie fought with the desperation of someone who knew they were outmatched, holding nothing back and weighing everything on an all-out offense.

The kicks rained down from all directions with a shower of icicles from above, and ice spikes that shot up from below. But whatever she tried failed to connect. She attacked with blinding speed, but Pyrrha was even faster. Melanie attacked with a lethal ferocity, but Pyrrha's strength and speed were far beyond hers and when Melanie next kicked high, Pyrrha blocked it with her shield and swept Melanie's supporting leg out using her javelin. Melanie hit the ground and before she could react, Pyrrha slammed the butt of her javelin into Melanie's solar plexus, putting her out of the fight. Pyrrha stood triumphantly without a single scratch on her person.

Yang, meanwhile, wanted to punch that smug grin off of Junior's face so badly. Yet despite all she had tried, she had only managed to scorch his clothes a bit. He had even managed to see through her attempt to use her counter spell, what was usually her ace up her sleeve. If she was going to do this, she was going to need something that Junior wouldn't be able to escape, even when he knew it was coming.

"What's wrong?" Junior asked smugly. "Is the all the Sun Dragon of Beacon has going for her?"

She smiled. he had just given her an idea. She hadn't needed it to use it a while, but if anyone deserved it, it was this guy. As she watched, Junior's grin fell from his face. He knew what was coming and he knew there was nothing he could do.

He turned to run, but they both knew there was no out-running this. Yang breathed deeply, then roared "Fire Magic: Dragon's Roar!" The instant the words were finished, an unrestrained torrent of fire shot out from her mouth and engulfed the fleeing Guild Master.

Looking over to see Pyrrha had also finished her fight, the two victors strode towards the beaten form of Junior. The Guild Master looked like a boarbatusk had dragged him through a particularly vicious house fire, but he was still conscious and that was what mattered. Yang crouched down and gripped what was left of his collar and pulled him up enough to be looking at her face.

"Now, we're going to ask you again where our fellow guild member is, and you can either tell us, or I'm sure your archive magic can tell you exactly what will happen to you." Yang declared. "So, where is Jaune?"

Junior looked between the two women with unconcealed terror and opened his mouth to tell them everything they wanted to know.

* * *

Junior breathed a sigh of relief from where he lay as the two women finally left. The guild hall was quiet except for the groans of pain coming from his various guild members and the sound of footsteps leisurely approaching Junior's prone figure.

Junior raised himself up onto his elbows to look at the man in a white coat and bowler hat approaching from one of the hall's farthest corners.

"Thanks for helping out back there," Junior muttered sarcastically, to the one non-member of his guild that had been present prior to the girls from Beacon arriving.

"Well, you were handling everything so nicely, I really didn't see the need," the man replied in an equally sarcastic tone.

Junior sighed in resignation. He really wasn't in the mood to deal with this guy right now. "What do you want, Roman?"

Roman Torchwick smiled down at the beaten Guild Master. "Nothing too difficult. I'm just curious as to what exactly inspired that little showdown."

Junior was about to tell Roman just where he could shove his cane for calling the fight that trashed his hall a 'little showdown' when the cane wielding criminal dropped a small stack of lien on his chest. "And leave nothing out."

Junior couldn't help but ask, "What makes you so interested?"

Roman just smiled at this. "Let's just say I have history with Beacon."

* * *

As soon as the elevator doors opened, Yang rushed into Master Ozpin's office. Without looking up from the paperwork he was filling out Ozpin started to greet her "Good afternoon Ms Xiao Long, How-"

Only to be cut off as Yang's hands slammed down on his desk and she nearly shouted, "Jaune's been kidnapped."

This declaration was enough to have Ozpin set down his pen and look at Yang with undivided attention "What happened?" he asked.

"Apparently Jaune's magic is pretty rare. Because of this, another guild kidnapped him and are selling him to some mad scientist that wants to experiment on him. So, you need to order a rescue mission now!"

Ozpin went quiet as he thought the situation through. "I won't order any members of Beacon to rescue Jaune." He then raised his hand to stop the outburst he knew was coming from Yang. "I made Mr Arc your responsibility, and so it will be up to you to rescue him. To this end, I will allow you to use one of the bullheads to get there and back. And if anyone wishes to go with you, I won't stop them."

With that said, he picked his pen back up and went back to filling in the paper work. Yang was furious, but she knew both arguing and fighting the Guild Master would be a fruitless endeavour, so she stormed back towards the elevator.

As she rode the elevator down, she pulled out her scroll and called the number of someone she was sure would help her, Blake Belladonna, her best friend. The call connected and the familiar voice greeted her with a simple, "Hello."

"Blake, I need your help. I-"

"I know," Blake cut her off.

"What do you mean you know?" Yang asked in confusion.

"Pyrrha already explained the situation to all of us. New member, kidnapped by mad scientist, need to bail him out," Blake explained bluntly.

"Oh," Yang explained in surprise. "Wait, what did you mean by 'all of us'?"

At that moment, the elevator opened to the ground floor and standing there alongside Pyrrha and Blake was Weiss, Ruby, Nora and Ren.

"What are all of you doing here?" Yang asked in confusion. She was sure Blake would help, Ruby and Pyrrha as well. But the others were a surprise.

"Seemed like a good way to get back into things after my stay in the infirmary," Blake answered.

"Jaune's a friend and a guild member, there's no way I could leave him there." Ruby.

"Every second that dunce is still a prisoner is a stain on our guild's reputation." Weiss.

"Damsels in distress, mad scientists and I think Pyrrha said something about an island. Anyway, it sounded like fun, so Ren and I decided to tag along," Nora added excitedly.

"I'm the one who suggested we head into Vale, so I feel somewhat responsible," Pyrrha said looking down.

"So, is no one going to acknowledge the fact that Nora called this Jaune guy a damsel?" Ren chipped in.

Yang looked at the assembled group, not knowing what to say. Luckily, she didn't have to as Ruby spoke up. "Well now that Yang's here, what are we waiting? Let's go!"

Yang smiled. "Yeah let's," she declared as she led the group to the bullhead hangars.


	4. Dr Merlot's Island

**AN: A new chapter in record time. I said I would be updating more frequently and I delivered.**

 **In other news my beta reader has published his own RWBY fanfic. If you like stories with Pyrrha as the main character you might want to give it a read, Dust to Dust by Wyncrer the Sage.**

* * *

When Jaune awoke, it was sudden and jarring. One moment he was dead to the world, the next, a jolt of pain had him violently thrown back into consciousness.

The rude awakening had him breathing heavily as though waking from a nightmare, and for a moment he couldn't see in the harsh white lights of the room he was in. As his breathing evened out and his vision came into focus, he saw he wasn't alone.

Standing in front of him was a man in a lab coat, his hair and beard white with age, with a prosthetic left eye that shone with a red light. The man set down a pair of jumper leads he had been holding before turning to Jaune.

"Ahhh, that's better. Sorry about the rude awakening, but I was getting bored of waiting," the man said with mock sincerity. "Please don't hesitate to let me know if you're restraints are too tight. After all, there's no need for you to experience any unnecessary discomfort. You are, after all, my first guest in… well come to think of it, you are my first guest here ever."

It was only as he said this that Jaune realised he couldn't move his limbs as they were, in fact, restrained as the man had mentioned, with his armour and hoodie removed.

Not just that, there was a drip trailing down into his arm, giving him a dose of who-knows-what. As soon as this registered in his mind he went into panic. He desperately thrashed against the bands around his wrists, ankles, waist and neck, that held him upright against the flat metal surface, but he soon realised that he was going nowhere.

"Ah ah ah," The mysterious man said calmly, as though telling off a child. "If you keep thrashing around like that you might break the needle."

The words brought Jaune back to reality and while he stopped struggling, his breathing still bordered on hyperventilating. Jaune scanned the rest of the room and noticed that he seemed to be in some sort of laboratory.

"You're most likely wondering who I am as well as a great many other questions. Allow me to enlighten you to the facts of your current situation," his captor continued, completely unfazed by his captive's distress. "My name is Dr Merlot. You have been brought to my island by some very kind gentlemen in order to participate in my experiments.

"You need not worry about the drip, it's just a little something I whipped up to prevent you using your magic. After a while you may start to lose feeling in your body and get light headed, but by then I don't think that will be your biggest problem." Jaune checked, and to his dismay Merlot was right. He could still feel his magical energy, but for some reason it wasn't responding.

"You can't do this! You have to let me go!" Jaune pleaded.

"Actually, you'll find I can do this and no, I do not have to let you go," the doctor calmly countered.

"I'm a member of Beacon. My guild will send people after me," Jaune threatened, not quite believing the words he was saying. Oobleck had been a long-standing member of the guild, and the only reason a search party had gone out for him was because Yang saw it as a good chance for him to get his feet wet.

"Really?" Merlot asked. "You, are a member of Beacon? How is Oz these days? Surely, he must be losing his mind if he is letting someone so easily beaten by Junior's lot into his guild." Jaune had no response to this and could only look away from his captor.

Seeing his captive resign himself, Dr Merlot spoke up. "Enough chit-chat. How would you like to hear about today's experiment?" Jaune made no move to respond. "I'll take your silence as a yes," the mad doctor declared, enjoying the sound of his own voice. "This island we are on happens to produce a unique substance of incredible potential. With this substance, I was able to bond dust to the bodies of Grimm."

This had Jaune's head shooting back up. "You've been experimenting on Grimm!? Are you insane!?" An ugly frown came over Merlot's face.

"With rhetoric like that, I'm starting to think you really are one of Ozpin's lackeys. Never the less, after some years of doing this I started to wonder if it was possible to do the same to people. Wizards specifically, much like how one might implant a magical Lacrima into their body to boost their magical power. And if I was going to do this, I wouldn't settle for some run of the mill wizard, but someone who used a rare magic, that way I could create something truly magnificent.

"And so here you are, my first human test subject. You should feel honoured." The mad man announced, before taking on a thoughtful expression. "Though considering how easily you were beaten, it isn't hard to see why your 'Light Make Magic' is so uncommon."

As he said this he turned away from his captive and started to drag a machine over, Jaune recognised the device, it was a harmless machine used to observe a person's magical energy.

"Before we can start the real science we have to do a few measurements first. See how your magical energy responds to different stimuli, etc."

When Merlot finished attaching the machine to Jaune, he walked over to a trolley that held an array of surgical tools. After a moment of thought he picked up a scalpel and turned back to Jaune.

"So how about we get started?" Jaune said nothing, but as his eyes remained fixed on the blade with a horrified expression, he started to thrash against his bonds hopelessly once more.

* * *

Yang looked past the pilot and through the cockpit window to the rapidly growing island. As their bullhead drew closer, Yang spied the still form of what she could only assume was the bullhead Junior's crew had used to get here.

"Put us down over there," she ordered the pilot, pointing to the parked aircraft.

The pilot complied with a quick "Yes ma'am."

As the team of Beacon wizards disembarked, they hurried over to the other aircraft, only to behold a gruesome sight. The black suited wizards were all dead, cut down by what could only be the work of Grimm as they tried to reach their aircraft. Yang quickly moved to block as much of Ruby's view of the grisly sight as she could. Pyrrha and Blake moved forward to examine the sight as the others formed a basic perimeter, wary of the Grimm returning.

"Jaune isn't among them," Pyrrha thought out loud "Perhaps he escaped during the attack."

"No." Blake denied calmly, and when the others looked to her she explained. "There are wheel tracks in the ground," pointing out the lines in the dirt track as she said this. "This is most likely from whatever they were using to transport Jaune, yet it isn't anywhere around. I would say they successfully delivered Jaune, and were attacked by the Grimm as they returned."

"Speaking of Grimm," Weiss spoke up, directing everyone's attention to a pack of beowolves that were now standing on the path that led deeper into the island.

"Everyone ready to fight?" Ruby called out, fully extending Crescent Rose as she did.

"No!" Yang declared firmly. "The Grimm don't matter, what matters is getting to Jaune as fast as possible. Only fight the Grimm if you have to."

That said, Yang charged down the path with a few fire-balls clearing her way through the pack. Her fellow wizards left to catch up, with Nora firing a couple of grenades into the pack, leaving those that survived being charred by Yang, to be blown to bits.

An alert on his scroll brought Dr Merlot's attention away from his experiment. Opening his scroll and pressing the flashing alert icon, he brought up a video feed from one of the island's many cameras. The screen showed a group of seven blasting past Grimm as they made their way across the island.

"Looks like you were telling the truth when you said people would come for you."

The restrained boy looked up at the doctor with a small smile as he said this. At some point during the proceedings, the blonde had managed to bite his cheek hard enough that his smile was a bloody one.

As much as it irked him to think it, Dr Merlot had to admit that the boy was tougher than he had thought. Not once had the wizard cried out from the pain while he made his recordings.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up boy," the doctor commented. "There are many security gates on this island strong enough to hold back the Grimm, so there's no way your friends will be able to make it through them. In fact, there just approaching the first one now."

As he said this, he turned the scroll so Jaune too could see the display, eager to see the boy's hope leave him as his friends failed. Merlot watched intently as the group of seven approached the gate, but something was wrong. The wizards on the screen weren't even slowing down.

When they were only a few meters away, the gate Merlot was so proud of peeled back like the lid of a tin can, letting the wizards pass through unobstructed. Dr Merlot stared at the screen in disbelief before the sound of laughter brought him back to the present.

The doctor looked at his test subject with a glare, just in time for the blood in his mouth to turn his laughter into a coughing fit, with a particularly hard cough send a splatter of blood onto the doctor's coat. The doctor closed and pocketed the scroll.

"It would seem I have other matters that I must attend elsewhere. We shall continue this later." Before he left he increased the rate of the sedative going into Jaune and turned off the lights before stepping out.

The team was making good progress. Yang and Nora's combined fire power made quick work of any Grimm that barred the way, and Pyrrha's magic had made short work of the two security gates they had passed through. And so, it was only fifteen minutes after they arrived that they came upon what could only be the islands main facility.

The large construct of concrete and steel was three stories high and emblazoned with the Merlot Industries logo, a stencilled 'M' inside a hexagon, with three circles coming off at different corners of the hexagon. As they approached, a voice made itself known from a series of hidden speakers.

"Greeting ladies. I don't recall inviting you to my island, so would you please enlighten me as to what you are doing here?"

"You kidnapped our friend!" Yang yelled out. "Give him back now or we'll take him anyway and kick your ass in the process."

"And Ren's a guy!" Nora added before giving a reassuring nod to Ren, as though to say 'I've got your back'.

"My sincerest apologies good sir, I meant no offence," the voice continued, the sound coming from multiple directions. "As for your other query, it would seem you are mistaken. I kidnapped no-one. I merely put out a request to some less-than-honest guilds asking for someone like him. And regrettably I cannot return him now, or ever for that matter. You see, your friend is helping me with some experiments and his input is simply invaluable."

"Well that's just too damn bad, cause we're taking him whether you like it or not!" Yang roared back.

"I thought you might say something like that. You guild wizards can be such a pain at times. However, it just might be that you can help me out with some experiments as well."

As this was said, sections of the ground between them and the facility opened up and cages rose up. Inside each cage was a large Creep, but there was something very wrong about these Grimm. Instead of just being the usual black fur and white bone, the bipedal Grimm had blue-green crystals protruding from their backs.

As the cages opened, the wizards readied themselves. As soon as one of the Creeps stepped out of its cage, Ruby flew into action, activating her speed magic and crossing the distance between her and her target in a blink. But just before her scythe could make contact, the Creep exploded, knocking Ruby clear off her feet.

The voice from the speakers laughed. "Careful. It seems when you merge dust with a Creep the results are… explosive."  
Ruby staggered to her feet just before a white glyph appeared below her and whisked her away from the advancing Grimm.

"I've had enough of you!" Yang bellowed, her eyes turning red. "First you kidnap my friend, then you hurt my sister and now your stealing my shtick. I don't care what it takes, I'm gonna kick your ass!" With that said the fiery blonde charged the mutated Grimm. In her enraged state, she didn't even hear the calm voice coming from behind her.

"Gravity Magic: redirect, magnify." The moment the words were said, white glyphs appeared below the assembled Grimm and flung them towards the door of the facility. The Grimm exploded on impact and blew away any trace of the door. Seeing this Yang stopped her charge and turned to glare at her companions

"What the hell Weiss! I had them!"

"No you didn't you dunce," the heiress retorted. "Didn't you see what happened to your sister? The moment you got close they would have exploded. Try thinking with your brain instead of your fists for once!"

"I know alright! I know!" Yang yelled back, her eyes still red. "But all I can think about right now is what might have happened to Jaune and how it's all my fault!" With this said her eyes changed back to their usual violet. "I don't expect you to understand, but understand this. When we find Merlot, don't get in my way." Yang then turned and started running towards the gaping entrance with the others chasing after her.

Once inside, they found themselves in a foyer with passage ways leading in different directions. The group paused, just now realising that they had no idea where to look. Ren moved away from the group and towards a computer terminal.

The group quickly gathered around him, watching as he typed away on the keyboard flicking through different screens before many of them could tell what they were seeing.

"He didn't even bother putting any sort of password or firewalls in place," Ren mentioned to no-one in particular.

"I guess he didn't see the point. There doesn't seem to be anyone else here after all," Ruby suggested.

"Found them," Ren announced calmly. "Jaune is on this level, but a few hundred metres away, in some sort of lab." Hearing that a member of their guild was being held in a lab had the wizard's blood run cold, before it quickly reached boiling. Thoughts of a violent reckoning resonating through all of them. "Merlot, on the other hand, has fled to the lower levels. He is currently in an observation room overlooking a testing area of some sort."

"We should split up," Ruby suggested, receiving nods of approval from the others.

"I was serious about what I said earlier." Yang announced in a way that left no room for argument. "I intend to make Merlot pay for what he's done. I'm going after him."

"I'll go with you," Blake offered.

"Me too," Ruby added.

"Someone has to make sure you three don't get yourselves killed," Weiss said with a resigned sigh.

"That leaves the three of us to retrieve Jaune," Pyrrha confirmed before turning to Ren. "Which way do we go?"

"To get to Jaune we have to go that way," Ren said pointing down one of the passages. "There's a few turns, but I've already downloaded the map to my scroll so we should be fine. To get Merlot, there's an elevator down the passage to the left. Take that to the lowest level. Once there, there's only one path and it leads straight to the testing area."

With the directions issued, the two teams ran off in their respective directions. Yang led the charge for her group and arrived at the elevator first.

The proceeding wait as the elevator slowly lowered them into the depths of the island felt like an eternity for the tense fire wizard. The repetitive elevator music did nothing to help as the four girls stood in silence. When the elevator finally reached the lowest level, they were happy to be off of it.

This quickly changed as path leading to the testing area was occupied with over a dozen security robots. Some robots were decorated in red paint, while others were coloured white. The red ones held double ended spears, while the white ones carried large guns.

Before the girls could plan any sort of move, one of the white robots launched a grenade at the group of them. The wizards quickly scattered, but were left with no time to recover as they quickly found themselves set upon by the red robots.

The red robots were surprisingly quick, alternating between a volley of rapid stabs and a flurry of quick slashes. Yang used her gauntlets to push a stab aside and gripped the weapon by the shaft before it could be withdrawn. The robot's momentary hesitation as it tried to devise a solution was all Yang needed to take its head off with a fiery punch.

Her victory was short-lived as a white robot fired a grenade into its defeated brethren's back, catching her in the blast. The force had her tumbling across the ground. When she rose to her knees and saw a red opponent leaping forward, ready to stab down at her, she took a deep breath.

"Dragon's Roar!" The ensuing fire stream reduced the robot's top half into molten metal and gained Yang a few moments of respite.

When the initial blast had gone off, Blake too had found herself faced with a red attacker. The speedy use of a shadow cloned saved her from impalement, and Blake used the momentary break to use her shadow form spell to become nothing more than a shadow on the floor.

From here she launched surprise attacks against their robotic attackers, using Gambol Shroud to sever arms and legs, before disappearing back into the shadows.

Weiss, meanwhile, was using her gravity magic to send robots smashing into each other, before slamming them into the ceiling.

Ruby was easily the most mobile of the group. Speeding over the heads of enemies and allies alike, she kicked off the walls and ceilings as the white robots tried in vain to track her rapid movement with their large weapons.

As soon as the girl in the red cape spied a large enough opening, she would speed in, bisecting the robot, before going back to searching for her next opportunity.

The robots were dangerous in their own right, but compared to the combined might of the four wizards, they were nothing than a speed bump.

With the element of surprise lost and many of their number already fallen, it wasn't long before the rest of the robots were reduced to scrap. With the path now clear, the team advanced.

"Merlot's being awfully quiet. Maybe we've got him scared," Blake commented.

"That or he's busy getting something ready," Weiss added.

In no time at all they reached the testing area. The area was a large open space, with enough area to land three bullheads and a ceiling 40 meters high. On the opposite side to them was a large glass window, stretching most of the rooms width.

The room behind the window was the observation room Ren had mentioned, made obvious by the solitary figure inside it. As the group stepped forward, a heavy metal door slammed shut behind them, barring their way out. It was now that Merlot decided to start talking again.

"Congratulations on getting through those robots. Quite the impressive display I must admit. But sadly, this is as far as you go. You really should have turned back when you had the chance, for now you will be facing my masterpiece."

As he said this, a large door built into the side of the testing area slid open revealing a Death Stalker much larger than any of them had seen before. The scorpion like Grimm bore the same green-blue crystals as the Creeps on its back and claws and its entire stinger glowed that colour instead of the usual yellow.

"What!?" exclaimed Blake in surprise.

"How on Remnant did you even capture something like that?" Weiss asked in disbelief, while Yang and Ruby stared at the monstrosity in shock.

"Oh, this was just a little souvenir I brought with me from the collapse of Mount Glenn. Something to make sure the cities downfall wasn't a total waste. But come now, I'm sure you have much more pressing concerns, like what it can do now that it's been mutated." As if on cue the massive Grimm turned to face the wizards, its red eyes glowing with the deep hatred that Grimm held for humanity.

With scroll in hand, Ren led Pyrrha and Nora through the facility at a run.

"We're close now," Ren announced as they closed in on a sealed door. "We just have to go through the next room and we'll be there." Pyrrha made quick work of the door, but what greeted them on the inside had them all stopping dead.

Row upon row of cages designed to hold Grimm, and all of them open, the former captives now roaming the space between them and their destination. A quick scan of the assembled monsters showed they were dealing with unmutated as well as mutated Grimm.

Twenty Creeps, a dozen Beowolves and an Ursa made up the un-mutated population, while the mutated Grimm were limited to a couple of Alpha Beowolves. As the trio stared at the veritable horde, a voice spoke up from Ren's scroll.

"I hate to disappoint you after you've come so far, but I simply cannot let you take my test subject." As Merlot's voice came through the device, the image of the map was replaced by countenance of Dr Merlot's smiling face. "I would advise you turn back now, while you still can." The trio glared defiantly at the doctor.

"We're Beacon wizards! There's no way we're going to run away from a stupid old man like you, and leave our guild member," Nora declared with rare seriousness.

"If you wish to throw your lives away on a fool's errand, be my guest."

The image of the doctor disappeared from the scroll, leaving the wizards alone with the Grimm. The same Grimm that had been alerted to the wizards presence by Merlot's scroll call.


	5. Sun Dragon's Rage

The Death Stalker struck first, launching a blue-green bolt of energy from its stinger. As unexpected as the attack was, the Beacon wizards were not caught off guard as they had been with the robots.

As the glowing projectile flew through the air towards them, they moved as a coordinated unit. Blake went left, Ruby flanked right, Yang charged forward and Weiss summoned a glyph and ascended.

Yang fired a volley of red dust shells at the Grimm's face, causing it use its pincers in order to shield itself. As soon as Yang entered melee range, she covered her fists in fire and started raining down blows on the monster's armoured pincers. The assault only lasted a few seconds before a white glyph appeared and whisked Yang away from the Death Stalker, a moment before the beast's stinger pierced the ground where Yang had been.

The Grimm had struck hard enough that the stinger was, for the moment at least, stuck. Blake and Ruby capitalized on this opportunity and rushed in from either side, striking the connection between the stinger and the rest of the tail simultaneously.

The girls got two strikes in before, with an ear-splitting screech, the Death Stalker wrenched its stinger free of the ground, just as Ruby and Blake were coming in for a third strike. The wizards were instead met by the pincers, as they swung out with explosive force and sent Ruby and Blake tumbling backwards.

The combination of being so close to the loud screech and the hard hit had Blake's head spinning and both sets of ears ringing. The Grimm saw Blake struggling and advanced on her, only to be stopped as ice rose up from the ground and encased its legs.

If the monster was capable of turning its head around, it would have seen Weiss remove the type of her sword from the ground and allow herself a small smile. As it was frozen in place by the ice dust, all it saw was Yang stand protectively in front of Blake and take a deep breath.

"Fire Magic: Dragon's Roar!"Once again fire shot from Yang's mouth and engulfed her opponent.

Believing the matter resolved, Yang lowered her guard. This mistake proved costly as the over-sized scorpion charged forward out of the flames and swatted her away with a pincer. Blake barely managed to cast her shadow form spell and melt into the ground before the Grimm reached her.

Before the Grimm could try and chase the shadow, a bullet struck its side hard enough to make it stagger.

Turning to face the new threat, the Death Stalker was met with the sight of Ruby and Weiss. Ruby was down on one knee, scythe blade dug into the ground and barrel aimed at the mutant, while Weiss had a glyph summoned just in front of the sniper-scythe's barrel.

The Grimm began to charge the two wizards only for Ruby's next shot, velocity amplified by Weiss' glyph, to cancel its motion and take off a chuck of bone plating. The monster quickly realized a direct charge wouldn't work.

So, to all the wizards' surprise, the Death Stalker used its pincers unbelievably quickly and began to burrow into the ground. As the scorpion like Grimm disappeared underground, the ground started shaking and the ground between Ruby and Weiss and where the Grimm had been, began to be pushed up, a clear indication of something large underground moving towards them.

Quickly realising the danger, the two wizards made to move, but unfortunately for Ruby, the shaking was made it harder to dislodge her scythe blade from the ground. The delay was barely more than a couple seconds, but it was too long.

Ruby had only taken two steps before the ground erupted, chunks of the dirt and rock that made up the testing area floor flying everywhere, as the Grimm emerged. When the dust settled Ruby's legs were trapped under a pile of rubble, making her easy prey for the massive arachnid.

The Grimm advanced with pincers raised as the trapped wizard struggled desperately to free herself. Once again, the Death Stalker found its progress impeded, but this time it was neither ice nor heavy impacts. Instead the monster was being held back by the powerful arms of Yang, surrounded by an aura of fire and eyes a brilliant red.

"Get the hell away from my sister!" the blonde yelled in defiance at the monster many times her size.

The Death Stalker raised its tail, lifting Yang up as well as she refused to let go, before spinning around as it tried in vain to dislodge the wizard burning its tail. Blake, seeing the distraction for what it was, looked to Ruby's trapped form and slammed her palm down on the ground.

"Shadow Pull."

A shadow in the shape of a hand, shot out across the ground from where Blake kept her hand pressed against the floor towards Ruby. As the shadow reached Ruby, she was pulled into the shadow and the shadow quickly retreated back to its creator. When the shadow reached Blake, Ruby emerged from within, safe and rubble free.

Yang was not having as much success. The Grimm had realised spinning wasn't helping, so instead it ran backwards towards a wall and slammed Yang against it. The impact had Yang's head slamming into the wall hard enough for her to lose her grip.

Her opponent wasted no time in turning to face her and bringing both pincers down on her. In a show of incredible strength, boosted by magic, Yang stopped both pincers, one in each hand as the scorpion pushed down on her. However, this left her defenceless against the stinger that she could see rising up.

She could see the stinger was in a bad way, the assault from Ruby and Blake had clearly done some damage, not that it would help her. As the stinger descended, ready to end the fire wizard's life, a white blur flashed across Yang's vision and the stinger fell away from the tail as the scorpion screeched in pain.

Yang looked in the direction the blur was going and saw Weiss, the red glow of fire dust fading from her rapier. With its stinger lost, the scorpion retreated from the wizards as its tail flailed around in agony. Now free, Yang made her way to Weiss, giving the girl in white a nod as thanks for saving her life.

"Your sister has a plan," the heiress explained simply.

"And that would be?" Yang asked.

"You'll see. Just get ready to hit that overgrown bug with everything you have," Weiss said enigmatically as the Death Stalker started to recover from the pain.

The Grimm focused with newfound rage at Weiss, the source of its pain. As it started to move Blake called out "Shadow Trap!" The spell had dozens of hands reaching out of the monster's own shadow and trying to pull it down to the ground. However, the beast would not be denied, it struggled against the hands, moving slowly towards its goal.

Weiss pointed her blade at the mutant and proclaimed loud and clearly "Gravity Lock!" The effect was instantaneous. The ground around the Grimm in a wide circle was depressed as the Death Stalker itself was forced to the ground with a resounding boom. Before it could try to rise, Ruby was zipping around it, firing ice dust rounds at its legs and being sure to stay clear of the gravity lock.

"Now Yang!" Ruby cried out.

Yang was already gathering magical power into her hands before her sister's call came. Stepping in front of Weiss, Yang braced herself and focused her mind. She could see the Death Stalker struggling violently against its bonds, the ice on its legs already starting to crack.

"Fire Magic: Solar Flare!" With the booming shout, Yang thrust her hands forward and from them burst forth a stream of fire that dwarfed the dragons roar in both size and heat. The massive torrent of fire completely engulfed the Death Stalker. The roar of the flames completely drowned out the screams of the monster as it burned. Yang kept the attack up for several seconds before letting up. As the flames died down, all that was left of the mighty Grimm was a scorched husk, quickly fading into black smoke.

"This… this isn't _possible_!" Dr Merlot screamed in anger. "That was my masterpiece! How did it get beaten by a bunch of teenagers!"

The girls, all breathing hard from the exertion, turned to the elderly scientist and Ruby called out "That's because we're not just any bunch of teens. We're team RWBY! The crown Jewel of Beacon!"

It was then that Blake's scroll began to ring. The girl pulled out the device and opened it to reveal the image of Ren staring back at her.

* * *

Back on the ground floor, Pyrrha, Ren and Nora were making their way through the group of Grimm. Or more accurately, Pyrrha was carving her way through the horde like a chainsaw through butter.

The red-haired wizard was surrounded by a whirlwind of steel from the cages that had once housed the Grimm. She strode forward purposefully, the Creeps and younger Beowolves that charged at her were quickly torn apart by what had once been their prisons.

Any that tried to circle around, were cut down by the blades of Ren's StormFlower or crushed beneath the head of Nora's Magnhild. It wasn't long until only the two mutated Alphas and the Ursa remained, with the Ursa being the closest to their destination.

As Pyrrha approached, her whirlwind still going, the two Beowolves slammed their paws into the ground in unison. This action caused a line of spikes, of the same blue-green colour as the crystals on their backs, to fire up out of the ground toward Pyrrha. The S-class wizard quickly changed her whirlwind into a solid wall of metal to stop the attack.

The two Alphas made to attack Pyrrha while she no longer had the whirlwind to protect her, only to be intercepted by Ren and Nora. Ren dashed underneath the outstretched arms of one Alpha, slashing its arms with the blades of StormFlower, before firing a short burst into its face. The bullets missed the Beowolf's eyes, but did enough to have the monster bringing its arms up to protect its face, blocking its field of vision and leaving its torso completely unprotected.

Ren capitalised on the opportunity, holstering StormFlower and concentrating magical energy into his palm, before delivering a devastating palm strike that blew a hole clear through the Alpha.

Nora's approach was far simpler then Ren's. Shattering one arm with Magnhild, then conducting her explosion magic along her hammer, and slamming the Beowolf in the chest. The last remaining Alpha was knocked off its feat, and as it got back up, it glowed pink for a second before exploding in a burst of heat and light.

The final piece of opposition, the Ursa, roared a challenge at the three wizards, only to be silenced as the steel that had made up Pyrrha's whirlwind rained down on it and turned it into a glorified pin-cushion. The way now clear, the trio moved quickly to the room where their Guildmate was being held.

* * *

With the lights out, Jaune was left in the pitch-black darkness of the lab. As far as he could tell, it had been about a minute since he lost all feeling in his arms and legs, though even that was a rough guess as Jaune found it increasingly harder to concentrate.

The numbness wasn't that bad, Jaune conceded, as at the very least it was a great improvement to the pain from earlier. Jaune blinked heavily as he found that his eyes were getting harder and harder to keep open. Not that it should have mattered, as he could barely see anything anyway.

As the the last of his consciousness started to slip away, a light appeared. A bright rectangle of light. In this light stood the silhouette of a woman. The woman seemed to project power as though from some divine source. It was then Jaune realised what he was seeing.

"An angel," he whispered breathlessly.

The angel took one tentative step forward, before closing the gap between them quickly. She raised one hand and placed it delicately on his cheek.  
"I'm sorry, Jaune."

The angel spoke as though it were her fault that he was dying, despite Jaune knowing there was no way that could be possible. It was his own fault he was here. Merlot had been right, he was weak, a failure of a wizard. He was not worthy to wear the symbol of Beacon. But despite knowing all that, he was not ready to give up.

"Please Ms Angel, I'm not ready to die," Jaune said, struggling to get the words out. "Please. Just give me one more chance." The angel said nothing, but removed her hand from his cheek and a moment later everywhere around him lit up with white light, and he felt the sensation of falling.

With the restraints removed Jaune fell forward, where Pyrrha caught him. She carefully carried him to a nearby gurney and gently laid him down. With that done she took a step back and her breath caught in her throat as she took in not just Jaune's injuries, but the blood that had gotten onto her just through their brief contact.

She wrestled with her instincts as every part of her screamed to hunt down the madman who had done this. But she knew she couldn't. She was Pyrrha Nikos. The Invincible Girl. She doesn't get shaken up. She doesn't get to lose control. And right now, Jaune need her far more than she needed to satisfy some petty urge for revenge. She took a deep breath and calmed her mind. When she spoke, her voice was calm and measured, the opposite of how she felt.

"Ren, call the pilot, get him to meet us outside the facility. When you've done that, call the others and let them know we have Jaune." Ren nodded, the tinniest frown the only indicator of the unease he felt at seeing a fellow guild member in such a state. "Nora. Destroy everything."

Unlike Ren, Nora had no intent on hiding how she felt and her rage was written all across her face. With instructions issued, Pyrrha grabbed a hold of the gurney and started moving towards the exit as Ren talked quickly into his scroll. Nora holstered Magnhild on her back and placed her hands on the ground.

"Explosion Magic: Remote Detonation," she growled as the floor of the lab began to glow pink.

With her work done she turned to leave, before spying a crate near the door. The crate was marked 'Subject #001', and a quick look revealed it contained a black hoodie and white plate armour. Realising it must belong to Jaune, she picked it up and carried it out with her.

Finishing up his call with the pilot, Ren informed Pyrrha that their ride would be waiting for them by the time they got outside. A solemn nod was his only response from the S-class wizard.

With that sorted, Ren moved on to his next order of business and opened his contact list, and began to search for one of the other wizards they had come with. It didn't take long as his list was small and 'Blake Belladonna' was close to the start.

He hit the call button and was quickly answered as the face of his fellow wizard appeared on his screen. He couldn't help but notice how Blake looked worse off than when they separated, but put it to the side as he delivered the news.

"We have Jaune. We've already called for evac and the pilot will be waiting for us outside."

"That's good to hear," Blake replied.

"Is he okay?" he heard Yang shout towards the scroll. Ren looked away from his scroll and to the injured boy, taking in the blood and bruises across his torso and arms.

* * *

Yang held her breath as she waited for Ren's response. Part of her not wanting to know, while another part told her that Ren's silence should be enough to tell her all she needs to know.

"He's in a bad way." With those few words Yang felt her stomach drop. "He has multiple cuts and bruises across his body. We can't tell the full extent of his injuries due to all the blood and he lost consciousness shortly after we found him."

With every word of Ren's diagnosis, Yang could feel both her guilt and rage building. If Ren said anything after that she didn't hear it as she focused on the man responsible and tuned everything else out.

Now much closer to the observation room than before the fight with the Death Stalker, Yang could clearly see the doctor. More specifically, she could see the blood splattered across his coat.

This was the last straw, with eyes turning red and fire exploding out from her, she hurled herself at the glass. Her fist hit with a dull thump and the glass didn't budge.

"You'll have to do better than that," Merlot mocked from his position of safety. "This glass is strong enough to hold up against a rampaging Goliath. There is simply no way a human can get through it." Undaunted, Yang raised her hands above her head and slammed them against the glass, still nothing. Letting her anger push her on, Yang breathed deeply.

"Fire Magic: Dragon's Roar!" The fire surged against the glass, the heat enough to have Ruby Weiss and Blake stepping back and shielding their faces. When the torrent died down, it seemed the glass had only suffered some scorch marks. Then slowly, the section in the epicentre of the attack, started to ooze down, leaving a shallow depression in the window.

Both Yang and Merlot stepped back in surprise as they looked at the newly melted section in the glass. All traces of Merlot's smug grin were gone as Yang let a menacing grin spread across her face, and pulled both her hands back for another blast.

Ruby, Weiss and Blake watched in shock and awe as Yang melted more of the glass with a stream of fire.

"Genius," Weiss muttered to herself. "If that glass is as strong as the doctor claims, then even if we all worked together we wouldn't be able to break through. But with Yang's fire we don't have to."

"I wouldn't exactly call it genius," Blake countered. "She's creating enough heat that she might just roast us as well."

"We need to stop her," Ruby announced.

"You're welcome to try," Weiss offered.

"And why should we? I've heard enough to know that bastard deserves what's coming to him," Blake added as Weiss nodded in agreement.

"Because every second we waste on him, is time where Jaune isn't getting back to Beacon to get help!" Ruby shot back.

While the other three talked, Yang had managed to pierce through the glass with her flames. The fire washed across the back of the observation room as Yang carved away a large enough section for her to walk through.

The way now clear, Yang strode into the observation room, fire still burning around her. Dr Merlot tried walking backwards away from the furious wizard, only to trip over his own feet and fall over.

"L-let's not to anything hasty. Wouldn't want to do anything you might regret later," merlot desperately pleaded, sweating profusely from both the heat and his fear.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to regret a thing," Yang reassured him, as she grabbed the scientist by his collar and lifted him up. She slowly raised her right hand, knuckles bloody, to deliver one final punch to end it all.

"YANG STOP!" Ruby cried out.

"He's a monster Ruby. And last time I checked, we kill monsters for a living." Yang kept her eyes fixed on the man in front of her as she delivered her statement.

"Jaune needs help!" Ruby pleaded. The words had Yang lower her fist slightly, so Ruby pressed on. "The others have already loaded him onto the bullhead by now. The only reason he isn't already on his way back to Beacon already is because they're waiting on us. Leave him and let's go." The words hit home and Yang's eyes switched back to their normal lilac and she dropped Merlot.

"Never mess with Jaune, or any other member of Beacon ever again. Cause if you do, I'll be coming back here." With the final warning delivered, Yang wasted no more time on the doctor and ran towards the exit with the others in tow.

* * *

The flight back had been tense, no-one saying a word as Ren cleaned and dressed Jaune's wounds as best he could with the Bullhead's small first aid kit. As soon as they had landed Pyrrha had rushed the gurney to the guild's infirmary.

With the exception of Weiss and Ren, who had volunteered to report to Ozpin on the behalf of each group, the others closely followed behind Pyrrha, which led to them all waiting impatiently in a waiting area as one of Beacon's resident healers saw to their recently rescued guildmate.

It was a full hour later that the doors opened. All the assembled wizards rose from their seats as Glynda Goodwitch, the imposing second-in-command of the guild, stepped out instead of the healer that had taken Jaune. Her piercing gaze swept across the young wizards, pausing for a moment on Yang, before she spoke.

"Mr Arc will be fine." The simple words heralded a collective sigh of relief from those gathered. "The cuts, lacerations and bruises were never a threat to his life. The man who did this knew what he was doing. All injuries were done with the intent of causing intense pain while making sure the Mr Arc stayed alive.

"The real threat was whatever drug that was being used on him and we believe this to be the reason for him losing consciousness. The healer tells me that you were lucky to find him when you did. If he had been exposed to the drug any longer, there is a very real possibility he would have suffered permanent brain damage."

Yang felt sick. How could they talk about luck, when Jaune had been drugged and tortured by a madman? Yang was only shaken from this thought when she heard Glynda continue talking.

"He is resting now and will likely be for some time. You can go see him if you want, provided you do not disturb his rest," The last part had clearly been directed towards Nora, who just smiled back, at ease now that the danger had passed. "When he wakes up he is free to leave, but if someone could make sure he doesn't over exert himself, that would be for the best." Having said all she needed to, Glynda walked out, presumably to Beacon Tower.

Nora was the first to act, announcing loudly "Well now that Jauney's safe, I'm feeling hungry. Let's go get something to eat Ren." The quiet boy was given no choice as Nora grabbed his hand and effectively dragged him to the exit. She stopped with one foot outside and called back in "Someone make sure to give him his box of stuff!"

Blake was the next to speak up. "I think I've seen enough of the infirmary recently and this turned out to be a lot more tiring than I expected. I'm going to the dorms to take a nap."

"I've got some research to do," was all Weiss said before she followed Blake out. With a final look between them, Ruby, Pyrrha and Yang moved deeper into the infirmary, with Ruby leading the way.

Ruby saw Jaune first and ran to his side. Pyrrha followed close behind, carrying the box Nora retrieved. Yang trailed behind, almost stopping as seeing Jaune in a hospital bed had the guilt hitting her full force all over healing magic had clearly worked well as all traces of his injuries had disappeared, but it couldn't replace lost blood, and in the white light of the infirmary, Jaune seem so much paler than he had in the Bullhead.

"Hey Ruby. I bet when Jaune wakes up he's going to pretty hungry. How about you go to the dining hall and grab something for him to eat?" Yang said.

"Great idea Yang!" Ruby exclaimed, seemingly forgetting what Goodwitch had said about causing a disturbance. "I'll get him some cookies. Those always help me feel better."

"Sure. Just try not to eat them all yourself." If the smile Yang gave as she said that looked forced, Ruby didn't comment on it as she sped out of the room. Yang took the spot Ruby vacated by Jaune's side, with Pyrrha on the opposite side.

"I want to ask a favour of you," Yang said after several moments of silence. When Pyrrha didn't respond, she took her silence as permission to keep going. "When Jaune wakes up, I would appreciate it if you could be the one to keep an eye on him and make sure he gets back to his place alright."

"Shouldn't it be you?" Pyrrha asked. "You know him best after all."

"And I'm also the reason all this happened, and I have no idea what I'm meant to do or say to someone who went through hell because of my mistake."

"I'll do it," Pyrrha accepted after a few moments of silent contemplation.

"Thank you-"

"But you better figure out what you're going to do quickly. You're his closest friend here and I get the feeling he's going to need you more than ever after this," Pyrrha said, cutting her off.

Yang had no reply. Merely nodding sullenly before walking out.

* * *

It was three hours later that Jaune and Pyrrha strode through the streets of Vale. The sun had already set and there were few people out as they made their way through the residential district.

Jaune had mentioned he had an apartment he was renting near the edge of the residential district, near the river that separated it from the agricultural district and was leading the way there. The apartment was inside a two-story apartment house, with red walls and dark-brown slopping roof on Strawberry Street.

"Welcome to my humble abode," Jaune announced with a flourish as they stepped inside.

From what Pyrrha could see, the apartment consisted of three rooms. One main room that housed Jaune's bed as well as various other pieces of furniture including a desk, bookcase, couch and a coffee table.

"The whole place came fully furnished," Jaune continued, spreading his arms wide. "With its own kitchen and bathroom, for only Ⱡ70,000 a month, the place is an absolute steal."

Pyrrha giggled at Jaune's antics, glad to see him acting like his normal self. Jaune walked across the room, taking off his armour as he did, and placing it on an armour rack near his bed. He paused suddenly before quickly turning back to Pyrrha.

"I totally forgot to ask if you wanted anything. Honestly where are my manners today? Would you like something to drink? I have water and… water." Pyrrha blinked a few times in surprise, looking at Jaune's hoodie instead of his face managing a polite, "No thank you, I'm fine." Jaune looked down in confusion to see what she was looking at and realised that without his chest plate, the image of Pumpkin Pete on his hoodie was on full display.

"Oh, right yeah, its ah, Pumpkin Pete. You know, from the cereal?" Jaune explained awkwardly.

"I know who Pumpkin Pete is Jaune. In fact, I actually did a job for them not long ago."

"Really? What was it? Did they have some Beowolves attacking a factory or something?" Jaune asked with a laugh.

"Actually, it was a modelling job," Pyrrha answered, looking away bashfully.

"Oh right. Of course you would do modelling jobs. I mean you're gorgeous and amazing and I'm going to stop talking now," Jaune rambled. The two stood there awkwardly, looking anywhere but at each other.

When Pyrrha spied a package sitting on the coffee table, she saw a way out of the awkwardness. "So, what's in the package?" Jaune quickly looked to where Pyrrha had directed her gaze.

"I don't actually know," he confessed. "The landlady must have brought it in while I was… out." Quickly trying to distract himself from what happened while he was 'out', Jaune moved over to the package and sat down on the couch as began to open it. "Oh hey, it's from my family. Wonder what they sent."

The package was long and fairly narrow rectangular box. Upon opening it, a longsword with a blue handle, inside a white sheath was revealed.

"Well, at least we no longer have to get you a weapon," Pyrrha said cheerfully as she sat down next to Jaune on the couch. When Jaune didn't respond Pyrrha asked, "Is something wrong?"

"I can't use this," Jaune declared as quickly stood up and walked away from the couch, leaving the sword on the table.

"Why not?" Pyrrha asked, not understanding his reasoning.

"Because that's my great-great-grandfather's sword," Jaune nearly shouted. "It's the sword of a hero. And if today is anything to go by, then I am far from being even close to hero. I don't deserve to use that sword."

"I disagree," Pyrrha argued, picking up the sword and walking towards Jaune. "On our way to rescue you, Yang told me about the day she met you. She told me how you saved a family. How you risked your life to make sure everyone was safe, when even an experienced wizard had cleared out.

"You might not be a powerful wizard or a skilled fighter yet, but that's what guilds exist for. So that like-minded people can come together and learn from each other." Now standing in front of him, Pyrrha held out the sword and Jaune hesitantly took it as Pyrrha smiled. "I may not have known you very long, but Yang says you have great potential, and I can't help but agree with her. And when you start to grow as a wizard, I have no doubt others will see it too."

Jaune gripped the sword firmly now, Pyrrha's speech having fulfilled it job at lifting his spirits.

"Did... did Yang really say I had 'great potential'," Jaune asked tentatively. Pyrrha nodded, while smiling encouragingly.

He looked down at the sword one last time, before coming to a conclusion and looking back up at Pyrrha.

"Pyrrha, I know you've already done so much for me and I have no right to ask this but, would you be willing to help me? To help me become a better fighter?"

Pyrrha's smile grew. "It would be my pleasure."

* * *

 **AN: Longest chapter to date. Hope you like it. There is a reason why Pyrrha said yes to training Jaune, despite telling Yang, in no uncertain terms, that she wouldn't and this will be dealt with later.**

 **If anyone is unclear on what each person's magic is let me know, either in the review or by private message, and I will include a list of the characters and their magics in next chapter's AN.**

 **As always a big thanks to my Beta reader: Wyncrer the Sage.**


	6. Merlot Strikes Back

**AN: Before you read the chapter I would just like to say a massive thank you to everyone reading this. After uploading the last chapter I passed 100 followers. To get such a positive response on not just my first RWBY fic but my first multi-chapter fic is simply incredible. On this subject I would like to give a special shout-out to NewPorty, who holds the title of my 100th follower.**

 **With that out of the way, hope you enjoy the chapter and happy holidays!**

 **Beta-reader/editor: Wyncrer the Sage**

* * *

"And then, with the help of Weiss' magic, I dragged the Nevermore up the side of the cliff and decapitated it!" Ruby finished with a flourish.

A prolonged "Woah" was Jaune's only response as he looked up in awe at the short girl standing on the bench opposite him.

"Not to brag, but yeah. We were pretty awesome." Ruby added

"That really was quite an impressive feat," Pyrrha complimented. "I was a bit busy with my own fight at the time so I didn't actually see it as it happened."

"Oh yeah! You teamed up with Ren and Nora to kill that massive Death Stalker, didn't you?" Ruby asked excitedly.

"Yes, though it wasn't nearly as exciting as your fight, and from what I hear, it sounds like team RWBY recently took down a Death Stalker of their own. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Nora starts looking around for a mutant Nevermore to even the score."

"That actually does sound like something she would do," Jaune commented. The three laughed at the idea of their energetic guildmate taking on the aforementioned Grimm.

It was a full two weeks since the events of Dr Merlot's island and everything seemed to have settled down for the wizards. Jaune and Pyrrha had made their way to the dining hall after a training session. Ruby had entered soon after, having grabbed some cookies, she had joined them for some company while she ate.

"Speaking of terrifying beasts. I hear you've been doing a bit of training with Weiss," Ruby said.

"Oh yeah," Jaune perked up at the change of topic, eager to talk about the training. "She's being teaching me how to better use my magic. Apparently, she couldn't find any books on my specific type of magic, so instead she's teaching me a whole bunch of things that are universal to maker magics. Thanks to her I finally have more than two things I can make." Jaune smiled with pride as he finished talking.

"I didn't think to ask it before, but why exactly is Weiss teaching you how to use your magic?" Pyrrha asked.

It was Ruby who answered as Jaune just shrugged. "That's because Weiss made a deal with Yang."

Pyrrha frowned at the knowledge that she wasn't the only one that Yang had asked to train Jaune.

"Why would Yang go through the trouble of making deals with people to train me?" Jaune asked in confusion. Ruby and Pyrrha both froze at the realisation that Jaune had no idea of the arrangement Yang had with Ozpin.

"Well, uh, I guess," Ruby stammered out awkwardly, pressing the tips of her pointer fingers together and looking anywhere but at Jaune. "She just wants to help you succeed as a wizard. Yeah. That's it."

"If that's true then she has a weird way of showing it. She's been avoiding me ever since I got back from the island," Jaune muttered dejectedly.

An awkward silence descended on the trio as Ruby and Pyrrha looked at each other, both unsure how to cheer up the blonde, so when suddenly the doors to the dining hall burst open and the Guild Master strode in, it was a welcome distraction.

"Wizards of Beacon." When Ozpin spoke he barely seemed to raise his voice, yet his words carried across the hall and brought all conversation to a swift end. "A situation has arisen that requires our immediate attention. An unknown party has tampered with our security sensors in the Emerald Forest. Whatever they have done, is now causing the sensors to draw in Grimm and drive them into a blind rage."

The Master's words drew forth shocked gasps and worried murmuring from many of the assembled wizards. With a simple raise of his hand, Ozpin silenced the noise before it could grow into anything more.

"This is nothing we can't deal with. We have plans in place for mass Grimm attacks, and this will merely require an adjusted form of one of them." Ozpin's words drew a clear reaction as the crowd visibly calmed.

"Miss Goodwitch and Mr Port are already positioned on the walls of Vale closest to our guild to protect the city. Miss Rose and Miss Schnee? You will be heading to the North-Western sensor and I need Miss Nikos to handle the sensor to the South-West. These are the sensors closest to the city so time is of the essence."

With a determined nod to the Guild Master, the aforementioned girls ran out of the dining hall together, before splitting into their respective groups and heading in opposite directions. This left Jaune alone at his table and feeling overwhelmed by the urgency with which everyone else seemed to carry themselves.

"Miss Belladonna and Miss Scarlatina are to head to the North-Eastern sensor. Miss Adel, you are to take care of the Southern sensor. Mr Daichi and Mr Allister will deal with the South-Eastern one. Mr Lie and Miss Valkyrie will be going East. Miss Xiao Long is to take Mr Arc and go North. The rest of you are to form a perimeter around the edge of the Guild grounds. Now move."

The wizards charged out of the dining hall with confidence and determination as they moved to take their positions. Amidst the rush Jaune was standing stock still, hoping that he had somehow misheard the Guild Master. After all, there was no way he could be expected to be going out into an area filled with berserk Grimm, or so he hoped.

He was pulled from his thought as a hand roughly grabbed him by his hoodie and started dragging him towards the door. Jaune instantly recognised the mane of long blonde hair that belonged to the fire wizard pulling him along. He tried to voice a greeting but his words were lost amongst the rush of people.

It was only as the approached a cliff on Beacon's Northern end that Yang released her grip. Instead of any greeting or explanation for why she had been avoiding him, all Jaune got from Yang was a curt "Stand there," as Yang pointed at a metal plate with Beacon's symbol on it, embedded in the ground. Realising now was neither the time or place to try get an explanation out of her, Jaune went over and stood on the plate.

"Stomp on the plate," Yang commanded as she stood on a similar one. When the action yielded no result, Jaune looked to Yang expectantly. The blonde sighed. "Stomp harder."

Jaune couldn't help but notice how much differently she was talking than usual. He understood why, he really did and he didn't blame her. She had vouched for him to become a member of Beacon.

In doing so she had staked her reputation on his success or failure. And he had failed badly. He was next to useless in the fight against the White Fang and he barely had time to catch his breath before he was kidnapped. Yang had every right to be disappointed in him and not want anything to do with him. But right now, by putting him with Yang, Ozpin had given him a chance to redeem himself to Yang, and he was going to make the most of it.

It was with this in mind that Jaune stomped down as hard as he could on the metal plate and this time his efforts resulted in a dulled click. For a moment, everything was still. Then the world started spinning.

Yang fought the urge to facepalm as she watched Jaune go cartwheeling through the air. A quick stamp later and she was also hurtling through the air, though in a far more controlled style than Jaune.

She had been so lost in her own thoughts about how she should act around Jaune, that she completely forgot that he had no idea about the launch pads. Going by how he was spinning out of control she was also pretty sure he had no landing strategy.

A few well-timed blasts from her shot-gauntlets had her catching up to her fellow blonde. She wrapped one arm around Jaune's mid-section and held the other in front of her, and used it to release a jet of flame to slow their descent.

The landing was a bit rougher than usual for Yang, but given she was carrying someone else, she didn't do too badly. Of course, that didn't stop Jaune running to the nearest bush as soon as he could stand and unloading his lunch. Yang couldn't help but laugh at the scene.

"You alright over there vomit boy?" The words slipped out before Yang realised it, and as Jaune turned with a light-hearted glare, for a moment it seemed like everything was back to normal with them. The moment was broken as Jaune turned back to the bush and unleashed another salvo of vomit. When Jaune finished he straightened up, brushed himself off and turned to Yang.

"So where is this sensor thing?"

Yang opened her mouth to speak and raised her right hand to point, then paused. She stayed like that for a few seconds as she searched her mind for an answer. When she drew a blank she instead brought out her scroll and after a few quick taps and some scrolling, she pointed ahead and a bit to her left.

"That way," She declared confidently. "Probably."

"Well, lead the way," Jaune suggested with a small smile.

Jaune had expected the distance from their landing site and the sensor to be quite small. He was instead treated to half an hour of fast jogging before they had their first Grimm encounter. And what he saw terrified him.

He had read about the monsters and so had a general idea how they tended to act, and after what he had experienced at the hands of Merlot, coupled with his training, he thought he would be fine.

He felt sorely mistaken, as the beowolves which usually attacked as a coordinated pack, all leapt at the pair of wizards at the same time. They were so desperate to get at them, many collided with each other. It didn't end there. The Grimm that had struck others, quickly turned on their fellow packmates that had hit them and attacked, slashing at each other's faces and biting down on necks.

"Get back!" Yang yelled, placing herself between the monsters and him.

The urgency in her voice tipping Jaune off to the fact that she too found the situation alarming. Yang swept her arm in front of her and created a wall of flame between them and the Beowolves.

However, the Grimm that weren't occupied with fighting each other barrelled through the fire without even slowing. If normal Grimm were terrifying, then a berserk Beowolf, set on fire, and charging at you was what nightmares aspired to be.

Changing tactic, Yang let loose with a volley of red dust shells from her gauntlets. The salvo did its job and many of the monsters fell. However, the pack was far from done for and Yang was quickly realising that a ranged fight was soon not going to be an option. As a Beowolf got close enough to leap at her, Yang cocked her fist back and let it be surrounded in fire as she prepared to counter with crushing force.

"Light Make: Javelin."

Only for it to be a wasted effort as a javelin of solid white light pierced the Beowolf's head and brought it crashing down to the ground. The first javelin was followed by five others that hit other charging members of the pack with various degrees of success.

Yang looked behind her and saw Jaune, one look at his face and she could see how scared he was, but in his eyes, she could see the same determination she had seen in the burning bookstore, with his right hand extended in front of him as he called out the spell once more, and six javelins appeared over his head before shooting towards the pack.

Deciding that Jaune could take care of himself for now, Yang changed to a more aggressive strategy and charged the few members of the pack that remained.

It wasn't long before Yang finished off the last of the pack and turned to check on Jaune. The javelins had been a surprise, but it was good to know he was making good progress under Weiss' tutelage.

And as Yang saw him standing there with a sword and shield in hand, not the magical ones she knew, but regular steel ones that she didn't recognise, she was forced to acknowledge that Jaune's new magical skills were not the only change that had happened while she was avoiding him. Despite Ozpin assigning her responsibility for Jaune, it seemed he was flourishing in her absence. The revelation spoiled any good mood produced by the shot of adrenaline in the fight.

"We should hurry," her words were clipped, more suiting of Weiss' cold demeanour than her own. "The noise of the fight may have alerted other Grimm, and the last thing we want is to get bogged down fighting these guys." With that said, Yang got back to jogging towards the sensor, leaving Jaune to chase after her.

As Jaune ran after Yang, he let his thoughts wonder to the aftermath of the recent fight. Unfortunately, it seemed the display of his new spell was not enough to get back in her good graces. But that could be expected, as he had a lot to make up for. When Yang suddenly stopped in a clearing, he almost crashed into her back as he tried to quickly halt his momentum.

He could see most of the sensor past Yang. It was a high-tech looking cylindrical object rising out of the ground, with four 'legs' at its base that had thick black pipes that likely supplied power to the sensor.

What he didn't understand was why Yang had stopped so suddenly, as the sensor was still a good few meters away. He moved next to Yang to try spot what had been causing the sensor to go haywire.

What he saw had him stumbling backwards and understanding why Yang had stopped as she did. Stuck to the side of the sensor was a metallic, briefcase sized object, with a 'M' inside a stylised hexagon, coloured with its creator's namesake.

"Merlot," the words came out as barely more than a whisper. His nightmare had followed him home. He turned to Yang to see her eyes a furious red, her whole-body trembling with rage and her fists clenched. She strode quickly towards the device, her intentions clear.

"Wait!" Jaune called out.

Yang paused just in front of the sensor, with her fist covered in fire, it was obvious it was taking all of her self-control to hold back from destroying the device. Telling her to stop wasn't easy for Jaune either. It felt like every cell in his body wanted to have every trace of the device destroyed, as the memories of the pain he endured surfaced with a vengeance. But he had an idea. And he needed that device to make it work.

"Even when all of those are destroyed, we are still going to have a lot of Grimm that have already been attracted to the Guild in the area."

"So what are you suggesting?" The way the words came out made it clear Yang's rage was still strong. Instead of answering immediately, Jaune walked forward. His hands shook as he reached up and pulled the device free from the magnets holding it to the sensor.

"Ruby told me about the ruined tower you encountered during initiation, the one in the chasm, do you remember it?" Yang nodded in response. "If we get this connected to one of our scrolls, we can lure the Grimm there and take shelter in the central tower while the frenzied Grimm are left charging over the edge as they try to get us." A howl from the tree-line caught their attention and it was soon answered by an alarming number of other howls. With no time left to fully analyse the plan, Yang grabbed the device out of Jaune's hands and placed her scroll on it, and after a few taps she placed it under her arm.

"Well let's hope this plan of yours works. Now follow me and be quick about it." With that said, Yang took off in a run back towards Beacon.

Now carrying the device that was attracting the Grimm, they encountered a lot more of the monsters then they had on the way there. Instead of standing and fighting, the duo elected to instead blast through and keep running. Jaune helped out where he could with his shield and javelins, but it was Yang's fire that truly kept the Grimm off their heels.

"Hey Jaune?" Yang called from a few meters ahead of Jaune as they desperately kept up their sprint.

"Yeah?" Jaune shouted back, feeling more than a little out of breath.

"Do you happen to remember the part of Ruby's story, where the bridge to the tower was destroyed?"  
"Don't worry, I got that covered." Hoping Jaune knew what he was talking about, Yang kept running.

Breaking out of the trees and onto the crumbling road that led to the tower, Yang and Jaune picked up the pace as they no longer had to watch out for tree roots or run around trees. Unfortunately, the clear ground meant the Grimm could go faster as well. As they got closer to the edge of the chasm Yang called out "Whatever you're planning on doing, you better do it quick!"

Jaune held a hand out towards the gap between the edge and the tower, recalling the words Weiss had drilled into him.

"Visualise it in your mind." He heard the words in his head as though Weiss were right next to him saying them. "When you have your image, reach out to your magic and make it real."

"Light Make: Bridge!" And true to his words, a bridge of white light appeared and spanned the gap. The duo ran on to the bridge without slowing, and a moment later Jaune felt a growing strain on his magic and instantly knew what it meant. The Grimm were on his bridge too.

Yang reached the end of the bridge first and turned to check on her companion, to find him still only about two thirds of the way across with the Grimm gaining on him. Yang threw some fire balls at the pursuing horde, but she couldn't do anything more powerful for fear of either hitting Jaune or knocking him off the edge.

"Jaune! Run!" She yelled desperately.

"What do you think I'm doing?!" He shrieked back.

As he got to the edge of the bridge, he dived forward, throwing himself onto the tower as the bridge disappeared, dodging a Beowolf's claw by a hairs-breadth.

The two exhausted wizards sat back against a couple of the still standing pillars on the tower and watched the Grimm on the chasm edge.

In the grips of the frenzy, some Grimm tried to leap from the edge to the tower with no success. Those that tried to stop had the press of bodies behind them push them off the edge. Watching the carnage unfold, Jaune didn't know whether he should feel proud that his plan had worked, or horrified by the madness of the Grimm.

"Next time you have an idea like this, remind me to say no," Yang said as she caught her breath.

"What? I thought that worked well?" Jaune argued.

"You clearly didn't see how close that Beowolf got to you," Yang countered.

Now out of danger, Jaune allowed himself to laugh. "I guess you're right."

A silence fell on the two and for the first time that day, the silence was neither heavy nor awkward. Jaune felt that now was a good a time as any to clear the air.

"Listen Yang. I, uh, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry." Whatever reaction Jaune had been expecting from his words, a mix of shock and confusion was not it.

"What the heck are you apologising for?"

Now it was Jaune's turn to be confused. "Because I messed up?" he tried to explain. "You put your reputation on the line when you recommended me. And I repaid your faith in me by screwing up at Mount Glenn and then getting kidnapped."

"Do you honestly think I care about that?" Yang almost shouted in response.

"Wait, but, if you weren't avoiding me because you thought I was some sort of embarrassment, then why were you avoiding me?"

Yang let out a long sigh. She didn't want to talk about this. To face up to her mistakes. But there was hardly any avoiding it now. "I was avoiding you because I felt guilty."

"Why would you feel guilty? It's not like you did anything wrong."

"Yes, I did!" Yang yelled back. "Remember when I told you that I gave Junior information in exchange for the location of the thugs?" Jaune nodded. "The information I sold him was about you. He knew about you, because of me. So it's my fault that you got kidnapped. It's my fault you were delivered into the hands of that mad-man. And then, even after everything he had done, when I had him right in front of me, I just let him go."

Yang looked down at her lap and her voice grew quiet. "When you say, 'I didn't do anything wrong', you couldn't be further from the truth. I did just about everything I possibly could wrong. And everything that happened to you is a result of that, even all of this is because of me."

As she stopped talking, she could feel a lump in her throat. She really had screwed up this time, and now it wasn't just Jaune, she had gotten the whole Guild involved in her mistakes.

She could hear Jaune stand up and start moving. She couldn't blame him for not wanting to be around her, she honestly wouldn't blame him if he never wanted to see her again. When a hand gently touched her shoulder, she looked up with a start, to see Jaune kneeling next to her with a gentle smile on his face.  
"Why?" was all she could manage.

"Because you came to rescue me." Yang made to speak but he cut her off. "Yes, you made a mistake, but so does everyone else, myself more than most, and you had no idea of knowing what Junior was going to do with that information. What's really important is that, as soon as you found out what was happening, you came to save me."

"So did the others," Yang tried to argue, looking away, unable to understand how he could be so kind after what she had done.

"Not really," Jaune countered. "Ruby and Pyrrha I could see coming along to help bail me out. But the others? Weiss barely knew me, definitely not enough to make her want to risk her life for me. Nora and Ren didn't even who I was, and Blake? I legitimately still have no idea who she is and I am pretty sure the feeling is mutual. They came because they cared about you, not me."

Jaune's grip on her shoulder became more firm before he continued. "Ruby already told me about what happened with Merlot, and you know what? I'm glad you didn't deal with him then and there. Not just because I don't want a friend of mine become a murderer for my sake as her sister watches. But because when it comes time to take Merlot down once and for all, I want to be there."

To Jaune's surprise, Yang let out a small laugh and turned back to face him, wiping away a few tears that had threatened to spill out . Gone was sullen expression of before, instead her eyes now shone with the same light he was used to seeing in them, and she had a small smile on her face.

"Are you kidding?" she asked. "After the stunt Merlot pulled today, if you want a shot at him, you're going to have to beat me to him." Jaune smiled back at her.

"Challenge accepted."

It was sometime later that Jaune and Yang stepped into the Guild Master's office. The other wizards that had been sent out to the sensors were already there. A table had been set-up in the middle of the room, where Oobleck analysed various pieces of the devices that the other wizards brought back.

Yang dropped their device on the table. Free of any medium through which to transmit, the device was harmless.

"Looks like other than Pyrrha, we were the only ones that didn't destroy our device," Yang commented, seeing the state of disrepair the other devices were in.

"Not exactly-" Pyrrha started to say before being cut off by Oobleck.

"Actually Miss Nikos destroyed all the internal electronics with a magnetic pulse. It seems you were the only ones to not destroy their device." Oobleck adjusted his glasses slightly as he looked from his work to the new entrees. "Which to be honest is the exact opposite of what I was expecting from you."

"Gees, have a little faith Bart. I'm not that bad." The flat looks she received from the rest of the room's occupants said otherwise.

"Humour aside, having an intact device will greatly speed up the process of where these were activated from," Oobleck announced as he picked up the reddish box and plugged a cord attached to his scroll into it.

"Isn't it obvious?" Yang asked. "Merlot must have activated these things from his island."

"Yes, the only problem with that is, from looking at the broken devices, I have been able to discover that the receivers on these are not capable of picking up a signal from that far away." As he finished talking a light ping sounded from his scroll. "We have a location!"

Everyone in the room, except the Guild Master who calmly sat at his desk, rushed to look at Oobleck's scroll.

"Wait, isn't that-" Ruby started.

"The Merlot Industries building located in Mount Glenn," Oobleck finished. It was at this point that Ozpin rose from his seat and walked over to the assembled wizards.

"As much as I would like to come down on this man with the full force of the Guild, that simply isn't an option right now. Despite Mr Arc and Miss Xiao Long's interesting tactic, there are still many Grimm in the area and we will need to keep the majority of our force here to defend both the Guild and Vale.

"However, I can send those of you gathered here. An attack on a single Guild member is one thing, but this man has attacked our home. When you find him, I trust you will teach him what it means to make an enemy of Beacon."

All the wizards facing the Guild Master nodded with grim determination. It was time to pay the man back for everything he had done to them.

* * *

 **AN: So next chapter we will get to see team CFVY in action with the others. I already know what I'm going to do for Velvet and Coco in terms of magic, but if you have any ideas for what Yatsuhashi and Fox could use, please let me know via either review or PM.**


	7. Return to Mount Glenn

**Beta reader/editor: Wyncrer the Sage**

* * *

Ozpin calmly regarded the two Bullheads as they took off towards Mount Glenn. He kept watching the departing aircraft as another Bullhead touched down on the landing pads, and Peter Port stepped out from behind the controls.

"What's the situation?" Ozpin asked, still looking towards Mount Glenn.

"Glynda has the defence of the guild grounds under control. The worst of the threat has passed and our members are now going out in groups to mop up the remaining Grimm," Port stated matter-of-factly.

"Good," Ozpin replied, finally looking at his companion. "Are we ready to depart?"

"The Bullhead is fuelled and ready to leave as soon as you are," Port answered as he gestured to the aircraft he arrived in. "But are you sure this is necessary? The signal definitely came from Mount Glenn."

"You're right." Ozpin said simply as they started walking towards the waiting Bullhead. "However, there is a chance that Merlot has since gone back to his island. Even if he hasn't, I want to see in person what he was working on and personally make sure all of it is destroyed."

"Sounds like you hold quiet the grudge against him."

"Dr Merlot is solely responsible for the fall of Mount Glenn, and despite having no magical abilities, his mix of genius and madness makes him one of the most dangerous people I know.

"The only reason he has been able to go unchecked for so long is that he was presumed dead. I informed the Vale council as soon as I heard he was alive, but after today, I have decided they are taking too long."

For the first time in Ozpin's memory, Port remained silent.

* * *

The interior of the Bullhead felt slightly cramped with seven armed wizards standing on-board. Oobleck was standing in the cockpit with the pilot, while Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Pyrrha and Jaune stood in the cargo bay, holding onto handles hanging from the ceiling.

The aircraft jolted around every so often as it hit spots of turbulence and Jaune desperately hoped it was just nerves making him feel sick, and that the motion sickness pill he had taken was working.

He tried to take a few deep breaths to calm himself, before realising that his unease must have been fairly obvious when Pyrrha placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder from her position next to him. When he turned to her she just smiled and said, "Don't worry. Whatever happens, we'll be there to back you up."

Jaune felt himself calming at the words. The sharp sound of a certain heiress calling out "Arc!" had him turning to face Weiss. She fixed him with a stern look that he had come to accept as her default expression.

"Remember the last construct I had you learn?" The words came out as more of a command then a question.

"Ah, yeah. I remember it," Jaune mumbled nervously.

"Good. If this Merlot creep has set this place up anything like his lab, then you might very well need it."

"Do you mind if I ask what this new spell is?" Pyrrha politely asked.

"Something that should give this dunce a fighting chance, should he find himself in a serious battle." Weiss answered vaguely.

The rest of the flight passed in tense silence, and when the wizards stepped out of the Bullheads they could see that the entrance to the Merlot Industries building was swarming with Grimm. The assembled stared at the brimming mass of Grimm that were so fixated on the building they hadn't noticed their arrival. As they watched, they were joined by the occupants of the second Bullhead; Ren, Nora and a team of four that Yang had told Jaune went by the acronym CFVY.

"This is way more Grimm than last time," Ruby commented. "He must have done the same thing to his building that he did to the sensors."

"You are partially correct Ruby," Oobleck started. "What we see here is similar to what happened to the sensors, because those devices were based on this building. For you see, it was Merlot's attempts to lure Grimm in for study that ultimately lead to the fall of Mount Glenn. Though now he seems to be using it to put Grimm between us and him as a defensive measure."

"Is this guy mad? Trying to use Grimm to defend himself is insanity!" Coco declared in disbelief.

"If you think this is crazy, you should have seen what he did to a Death Stalker," Yang added unhelpfully.

With a shake of her head Coco stepped forward. "Let's just get this over and done with." To Jaune's surprise, as Coco walked towards the Grimm horde, her handbag transformed into a minigun.

When the bag finished transforming, the beret wearing wizard gripped it with both hands before saying "Gun Magic: Armour Piercing Rounds." She then pulled the trigger and the other twelve wizards watched as the bullets tore through the gathered monsters.

Jaune stared in shock at Coco, his brain struggling to make sense of her weapon and how easily she had cut through the mass of Grimm. He looked to the others to gauge their reactions, only to see them completely unfazed by the display.

"Seriously, is no-one else even remotely surprised by that?" Jaune couldn't help but ask.

Yang raised an eyebrow at his question "This coming from the guy who makes solid objects out of thoughts and light?"

"Touché."

"You planning on standing around chatting all day like a bunch of old ladies, or are we actually going to go get this guy?" Coco called out.

Coco's question got the whole group moving. Knowing more Grimm would already be on their way, they all ran through the tower's doors and into a small pack of Beowolves that had survived Coco's onslaught. A quick burst of gunfire and dust bombardment made short work of those not smart enough to flee further into the building.

Jaune looked at the building around him. Despite the years of neglect, it was clear that in its day, the tower would have been magnificent. A now broken water feature made of marble occupied the centre of the lobby, with a reception desk further back. A café took up the entire right side, while the left gave access to a row of elevators, with the side facing towards the centre of the lobby made of glass, and a staircase.

But easily the most impressive and eye catching part of the tower was the atrium in the centre, in the shape of a twenty-meter-wide circle that reached all the way up to the top most floors. This allowed those standing in the lobby to see all the way up to the top few floors.

It made Jaune realise that this tower was even taller than the one at Beacon, and how pathetically small he was compared to it.

Before Jaune could take in more of the building, a voice came crackling through loudspeakers spread throughout the lobby.

Pyrrha heard the voice of Dr Merlot come through the speakers and immediately and her head immediately snapped towards Jaune. The voice was distorted by static, unsurprising considering their years without use, but none of those who had been to the island could have mistaken it.

"I knew when I activated my lures around Beacon that I should expect company, but I must say you got here much faster than anticipated."

Jaune stood still, seemingly frozen in place by the voice of his tormentor.

Yang on the other hand was another story. "You underestimated us last time as well. Remember how that ended? Because I do! I warned you not to mess with my guild and you didn't listen! Now it's time for you to pay!"

"Actually, in your warning you mentioned that if I 'messed' with anyone from your guild, you would be returning to my island. You never said anything about coming after me," Merlot corrected.

"Shut up and show yourself!" Yang roared back.

"You want me to come all the way down to you? It was hard enough getting all the way to the top for someone of my age. Have you honestly no respect for your elders?" Pyrrha could see the waves of heat emanating from Yang as her frustration and anger built. "That aside, I must thank you for bringing my test subject back. I was only just getting started when we were so rudely interrupted."

The words seemed to trigger something in Jaune as he snapped out of his trance like state, and his normally kind and happy face became filled with rage.

"You're dead Merlot!" Jaune shouted as loud as he could. Moving with surprising speed, he ran to the centre of the lobby, just below the atrium. He then pressed his hands to the ground, before shooting up on a rapidly growing cylinder of light.

Caught off guard by Jaune's sudden movement, Pyrrha was unable to reach Jaune before his rapid ascent. Yang, however, was closer than she was and was able to grab the edge of the cylinder as it grew, holding on with both hands as Jaune's construct carried the fellow blondes skyward.

"Wait you two!" Oobleck called out uselessly. Obviously realizing it was too late to stop them, Oobleck changed tactics. "Ruby, Pyrrha, Blake. Go after them." All three nodded in unison.

Ruby took off into a red blur, speeding up the stairs at a dizzying pace. Blake disappeared into her own shadow and sped up the walls. As for Pyrrha, she headed for the elevators. As she moved she heard Oobleck giving out instructions to the rest.

"Coco, take your team and secure the building entrance."

"On it. Yatsu, get us a moat." Coco's command was soon followed by the sound of rumbling earth as Oobleck turned to the three remaining wizards.

"You three are with me. This building has its own generator, if we can find that and shut it down, we won't have to worry about the Grimm lure."

It was a testament to how fast Oobleck spoke that he was able to issue commands before Pyrrha made it to the elevator.

To Pyrrha's surprise, when she pressed the call elevator button as a test, one of the elevators actually opened. Once inside she reached out to grab the elevator with her magic. The door was one thing, but there was no way she was trusting the cables in this thing.

Without further delay, she had the elevator rocketing up the shaft. As the elevator accelerated, she channelled some of her magical energy through her body, to strengthen it in order to deal with the increasing G-forces. Ruby and Blake had a strong lead on her so she pushed the elevator faster, completely unaware of a piece of rubble jutting out into the elevator shaft from one of the higher floors.

Pyrrha never saw the impact coming.

Blake didn't see the crash, but it was impossible for her not to hear it. The sound of metal rending, concrete smashing and glass shattering violated her ears and shook her being, causing her to stop her ascent and lean out of her shadow form to see what had happened.

What she saw was that the elevator Pyrrha had used had been reduced to a mangled heap. Pyrrha had managed to get just a few stories below her before the collision and so Blake had a clear view of the carnage.

The roof of the elevator was now slanted, as the side that hit the rubble crumbled and stopped while the side closest to the atrium had tried to keep moving up. Unable to deal with the tops' change in shape, the elevator walls had bent and snapped, while the glass wall facing the atrium had shattered, exploding into thousands of pieces.

And then there was Pyrrha. It wasn't hard to work out what had happened.

Unsecured to anything in the elevator, when it had all come to a sudden halt, Pyrrha's momentum had thrown her onto the now slanted elevator roof, which she had bounced off and out through the glass, and into the atrium where she now fell.

She was about to take off to catch Pyrrha, when a red blur shot out from the staircase next to the elevator. Blake watched as the blur that was Ruby caught Pyrrha out of the air, before carrying on across the gap to the far wall, where she barely let her feet touch before she pushed off back towards the staircase. Knowing Ruby would make sure Pyrrha was cared for, Blake resumed her climb.

Yang watched Ruby save Pyrrha from her spot holding onto the edge of Jaune's construct, having looked down at the dizzying height as soon as she heard the crash. She knew Pyrrha was tough and Ruby would do all she could to help her but no matter how many times she told herself that, it wouldn't erase the feeling of gut wrenching fear as she saw one of the strongest wizards she knew falling limply from what was easily a fatal height.

This feeling was only worsened as she glanced at Jaune and realised that he hadn't even noticed Pyrrha fall, his face a mixture of anger and determination as he focussed on reaching the top of the tower.

Seeing the typically happy and care-free Jaune looking like this worried her, enough to make her think back to her previous encounter with Merlot. _Was this what Ruby felt when she watching me stand over him?_

Ruby's landing was fast and far from gentle, but she hadn't had time to do any better. As it was, she made sure she hit the staircase landing first, using herself to cushion Pyrrha as the two slid deeper into the building, carried forward by the remnants of Ruby's speed.

As soon as they came to stop she quickly, but gently, lifted Pyrrha off her and lowered to the ground. She placed her fingers on Pyrrha's neck, and released a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding when she felt a pulse. Another quick check revealed she was still breathing.

"You really enjoying living up to the title 'Invincible Girl' don't you?" Ruby joked to no one.

Ruby went to check for injuries, noting the blood running down Pyrrha's face and the dozens of small cuts from the glass, when a snort nearby had her head snapping around to the passageway that led off from the landing they were on.

Standing less than ten meters away was a Beowolf, and so Ruby tapped into her speed and decapitated the monster with Crescent Rose faster than most could blink. Two things clicked in Ruby's mind at that moment; the first, Beowolves rarely travelled alone. Second, like sharks, Grimm could smell blood from a great distance away.

This was a problem for Ruby. The narrow passages and tight corners of the tower made use of both her speed and her weapon difficult, especially if she was trying to defend someone.

Thinking quickly, she switched to her ice dust ammo and fired enough shots to seal off the passageway. She then pulled out her scroll and called up Oobleck.

"Oobleck! I need help! Pyrrha's unconscious and I have Grimm incoming!" Ruby had barely finished rattling off her words when she winced back as she received a nothing but loud static as a reply.

"Oh come on! Not now. Work you stupid thing!" Ruby pleaded, shaking the device as the 'no signal' symbol remained unflinching.

* * *

Down in the tower basement, Weiss starred at the structure before her in confusion. While many others may have just seen a dust reactor, Weiss was not 'many others'.She knew dust like few others did and as a result knew dust reactors well, and there was something wrong with this one. Wires where they weren't supposed to be and cables linked in irregular places were just a few of the problems she could see at a cursory glance of the Bullhead sized object.

"Oobleck, sir. There seems to be something wrong here," Weiss said, voicing her concerns to the more experienced wizard who was inspecting the reactor.

"You are right Weiss. In fact, it is my belief that this reactor has been rigged to explode," Oobleck explained impassively as he moved around the reactor using his magic, seeming to appear in one place, only to disappear and reappear somewhere else.

"You mean this is-" Weiss started.

"A trap. That would be correct," Oobleck finished.

"But that makes no sense," argued Ren. "Why would Merlot set the building to explode if he was still in it?"

"You are right. He wouldn't, unless he was already gone. Looking at things now, adding in the fact that Merlot has access to advanced robotics, it is entirely possible that he was never here to begin with."

"But we heard him over the speaker system. Yang, Jaune and the others went up to face him," Nora protested.

"That could have easily been a transmission from his island, and what they are heading to is likely naught but another trap, designed to keep them at the top of the tower until the reactor detonates." The revelation had fear gripping the young wizards' hearts as they became aware of the full extent of their situation.

Weiss took a deep breath to regain her composure before addressing Oobleck. "Sir, are you able to diffuse the bomb?"

Oobleck was silent for a few moments as he pondered the question. "I do believe I should be able to stop the reactor from exploding. However there still remains the problem of disabling the reactor without destroying it and detonating the dust.

"I should be able to help on that front," Weiss assured him. "Ren, call the others and warn them about what's happening."

Ren nodded pulling out his scroll, and after a few deft taps, holding it to his ear. Only to move it away a second later and stare at the screen. "There's no signal," he explained.

"What?" Weiss exclaimed in shock. "Even if we can't connect to the CCT we should be able to handle short range calls. Unless-" Weiss said, trailing off at the end.

"Unless someone was jamming the signal," Nora said, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"What on Remnant have we gotten ourselves into?" Weiss asked no-one in particular, pinching the bridge of her nose as she mind flew a mile a minute, trying to come out with a solution to a problem that only grew more complex with every moment.

She liked organisation, patterns and being able to anticipate things. This was none of that, this was madness. They were separated, unable to communicate and caught in Merlot's trap.

"We've got no choice, we can't leave the others up there and we can't guarantee that we will be able to stop the reactors detonation. Ren, Nora, I need you to get to the upper levels as fast as you can and warn them," Weiss ordered, taking charge of the situation as Oobleck continued to inspect the reactor.

"Are you sure?" Ren asked. "Oobleck sent them because they were the fastest. In all likelihood, they will already be caught up in whatever Merlot has set up by the time we arrive."

"We have to at least try, and I am yet to see any trap that can hold Yang and Pyrrha." Ren nodded at Weiss' response and took off up the stairs leading to the ground floor with Nora close behind. Having done what she could, Weiss turned to Oobleck who had begun his work and began to aid him in whatever way she could.

* * *

Jaune slowed the growth of his construct as he neared the top of the atrium. The pillar stopped growing when it was level with the last story the atrium went through, and Jaune jumped over onto a railing bordering a passage way that went around the circumference of the atrium.

As he vaulted over the railing, he was surprised by the sight of someone next to him. He blinked in surprise at Yang as she flexed her fingers. _Was I really so focused I didn't even notice she was with me?_ he thought to himself.

"Damn. Since when could you make something that big?" Yang asked as continued to wring her fingers.

"Uh," Jaune eloquently responded before looking over the edge to see how tall his construct had been. He immediately regretted looking down as the sight did all kinds of terrible things to his stomach. "Did I really make something that high?"

"You sure did."

As though having someone confirm it somehow made it real, a wave of exhaustion hit Jaune so hard he staggered on his feet.

"Woah easy there," Yang comforted as she grabbed and helped steady him. "Did you seriously not realise how much you were doing?"

Jaune shook his head. "I could have sworn it was only going for half-a-minute at most."

"Must have been some serious adrenaline rush," Yang concluded. "Kinda explains why you got tunnel vision and didn't even react to what happened to Pyrrha."

Jaune's exhaustion was forgotten in a heartbeat. "What are you talking about? What happened to Pyrrha?"

"You really didn't notice any of it?" Jaune could tell Yang didn't want to be the bearer of bad news but he had to know.

"What. Happened."

"Oobleck must have sent her and Ruby after us," Yang answered, although Jaune knew that she meant after him. "She was in the elevator, using her magic to move it and going really fast. Then she hit some rubble that was jutting into the elevator's tunnel, and, well…"

Jaune staggered away from Yang before slumping against the wall, his head in his hands and his eyes wide as he came to terms with the cost of his brashness. Having started telling him, Yang knew she had to tell him all she had seen.

"She was thrown clear during the impact, and was falling down the atrium before Ruby caught her."

"How could I do that to her?" Jaune asked, yet Yang felt that the question wasn't directed at her. "After all she's done for me, this, is how I repay her."

Realising Jaune was quickly losing himself in self-hatred and insecurity, Yang swallowed her own doubts and concerns and walked over to where her fellow blonde was sat.

When she was close enough, she grabbed Jaune by his hoodie and dragged him to his feet, not an easy feat considering Jaune was taller than her, and slapped Jaune across the blow had the intended effect of bringing Jaune back to the here and now. Yang then clasped her hands on either side of Jaune's face and forced him to look in her eyes.

"What happened to Pyrrha was not your fault and it wasn't hers either. I'm not just saying that because her hitting that rubble was an accident no-one saw coming. I'm saying that because there is someone who deserves the blame a whole lot more. The same psycho who is responsible for what happened to you. The same asshole who is responsible for the attack on Beacon.

"So, are you gonna sit here and sulk, or are you gonna help take this fucker down?" The words had the desired affect and Yang could see the determination burning in his eyes.

"Well this truly is a heart-warming scene," a voice came from everyone and nowhere at the same time. "Though I would greatly appreciate it if you refrained from calling me an 'asshole' and a 'psycho'. To be honest, I'm quite glad it's the two of you up here. After the young ladies performance back on my island, I can't wait to see what she might be able to make after a few adjustments." Hearing the voice of Dr Merlot, and knowing he was so close brought all kinds of dark thoughts to the front of Yang's mind.

"Let's put an end to this guy," Jaune declared. Yang couldn't agree more as the two set off up the stairs heading to the top most floor, with the voice of Merlot following them.

"While I'm improving your physical selves, it might be worth the effort of adjusting your minds as well. Especially you, young lady. I find your temperament particularly distasteful."  
"Well fuck you!" Yang shouted back as they ran down a passageway on the highest floor.

"My point exactly," Merlot continued as the two of them arrived at a door marked as the CEO's office. "Please come inside. The door is unlocked." This time the voice came from inside the room instead of through the speakers.

With one last look exchanged between them, Yang kicked down the door and they stormed inside. The office had a higher ceiling than the rest of the floor, however not all the lights were on so most of it was shrouded in darkness. There was floor to ceiling windows on one side that had their shutters drawn and an ornate desk and chair near the windows. And there, standing casually in the centre of the room was Dr Merlot himself.

"Was that really necessary? The door really was unlocked you know."

Something about seeing Merlot in person, with his glowing red robotic eye, his white coat and his equally white and messy hair, flicked a switch in Jaune, and without another word he charged forward with a roar and his ancestral blade raised high.

"Jaune wait!" Yang called out. Her pleas fell on deaf ears as Jaune got close to his tormentor and swung down with Crocea Mors, only for the sword to pass through Merlot with no resistance as Jaune's momentum kept him going straight through Merlot. The image of Merlot flickering was the only damage he dealt as the scientist laughed.

"How is it exactly that such powerful magic ended up in the hands of such complete idiots?"

And then a solid steel door slammed shut over the shattered door behind them.

* * *

Back outside, Team CFVY was feeling the pressure of the Grimm bearing down on them.

Yatsuhashi's earth magic was playing a pivotal role in keeping back the ever-growing tide, but he was only human and he was tiring, evidenced by the way he leaned on his sword and Fox defended him as he caught his breath after his last spell. Velvet was pulling her weight as well, the box she carried allowing her to create copies of weapons, in this case Coco's minigun, and stem the tide.

However, while she could mimic weapons, she couldn't mimic spells like the gun magic that made Coco's weapon so dangerous. Seeing that they weren't going to be able to hold the position in front of the tower much longer without help, Coco got ready to call a retreat to inside the tower.

However, the words died in her throat as massive steel blast doors slammed down over the entrance, with similarly thick metal shutters closed over the windows. While their friends were now trapped inside, they were stuck between a whole lot of Grimm and a very hard place.

"Well that's just fucking brilliant," Coco spat.

* * *

"As much as it would please me to continue my experiments on you," Merlot explained to his blonde captives, "I have decided you are not worth the trouble, and have instead decided to use you as an example to others that might think of interrupting my work."

"You're insane!" Yang shouted at Merlot's holographic form.

"I believe the word you are looking for is 'inspired'," Merlot countered calmly before a look of annoyance settled over his face. "As much as I would love to enjoy watching your demise as it happens, I believe I will just have to content myself with watching the recording. It seems I have an uninvited guest on my island. I'll leave you in the hands of my capable assistant. Goodbye and good riddance."

The hologram disappeared and in its place, the darkened sections of the ceiling were illuminated, revealing the massive form of a Spider Droid. Jaune was frozen in shock as the robot, in a feat that seemed too delicate for something of its size, lowered itself from the ceiling to the floor of the office and aimed its guns directly at Jaune.


	8. The Doctor Will See You Now

**Beta reader/editor: Wyncrer the Sage**

* * *

Jaune raised his shield and just in time as one of the robot's guns fired a blast that slammed into his shield, lifting him off his feet and throwing him across the room. Jaune tumbled heavily across the ground, losing his grip on his sword and shield before coming to a stop.

His ears rang, his left arm felt like it had been trampled by an Ursa and his head swam as he struggled to his feet, before one of Pyrrha's first lessons resurfacing in his mind. _Never stay still in a fight_. Looking back at the robot confirmed that it was once again aiming at him. If he needed any confirmation that Merlot wanted him dead, this was it.

Just before the guns could fire, Yang tackled Jaune out of the way, the two of them narrowly avoiding the blast.

Jaune tried to stand back up, but Yang was faster and pulled him up by his hood, screaming at him to move as she dragged him after her as she ran to avoid the energy projectiles that rained down behind them. The blonde shot a continuous stream of fire at the robot's head as she ran, hoping to blind whatever cameras or sensors it had.

Her plan technically worked, except their mechanical opponent dealt with this handicap by firing wildly around the room. The blind fire took out the floor to ceiling windows, letting in a rush of air and light.

The burst of wind momentarily pushed Yang's fire away from the machine, and that was all it took as the robot aimed and fired at the wizards. Jaune summoned a shield to protect them, but the force was still enough to throw them off their feat. Yang slammed into the wall near where they came in, where she could only watch as Jaune was thrown towards the shattered windows, hitting the ground near the edge before bouncing over.

Ruby aimed Crescent Rose at the Beowolf rushing up the stairs and not a moment later it's head exploded the moment after she fired a round.

With no time to relax, Ruby turned to dispatch another Beowolf that was trying to break through the ice barricade she had made in the passageway. The monster fell only for its place to be taken by another. Ruby pulled the trigger on her rifle, only for the gun to make a dry click that marked an empty magazine.

Ruby ejected the spent magazine and reached back to grab a full clip, feeling dread pool in her stomach as she realized the magazine she was grabbing was her last one. Steeling her resolve she loaded the clip and took aim, only for the Beowolf to be taken out by a slightly quicker gunshot.

Ruby looked to the origin of the gunshot to see, to her amazement, Pyrrha sitting against the wall with Miló in its rifle form. Ruby's relief at seeing Pyrrha awake was immediately overshadowed by concern as she took note of the blood running down her face and the way she winced as she tried to adjust her position.

"Don't try to move," Ruby commanded as she knelt down in front of her injured friend, taking Miló from her weak grip and laying it down next to them.

"I'm fine, I can still-"

"No."

Pyrrha seemed momentarily taken back by Ruby's refusal. "Ruby, I-"

"I said no!" Ruby's refusal came more forceful than before. "You didn't see the wreckage, you're lucky to be alive right now. I'm not letting you get yourself in even more trouble by trying to fight as you are."

Their argument was interrupted by the sound of more Beowolves rushing up the stairs. Pyrrha reached for her weapon, only for Ruby to snatch it up first, her speed being great enough to outpace Pyrrha on a good day.

Miló in hand, Ruby spun and fired on the oncoming Grimm, felling them with precision headshots. Looking up at Ruby standing with her weapon still aimed at the stairs, Pyrrha released an exasperated and slightly pained sigh.

"There really is no chance of you letting me fight is there?"

"Nope."

Down in the basement Weiss wiped beads of sweat from her forehead as the heat in the reactor room steadily increased. Once she had begun helping Dr Oobleck with the reactor, it had quickly become clear what Merlot had done. The additional wires and connections that the mad scientist had attached had been placed to side-step safety features and fail-safes built into the reactor.

As a result, the reactor was using up increasing amounts of lightning dust and if they couldn't stop it, then the amount of dust in the reactor would surpass the threshold of what the reactor could harness.

"Dr Oobleck, if we can't stop this, what's going to happen?" Weiss asked tentatively as she adjusted a set of dials.

Oobleck paused his work for a moment to ponder the question, before stating matter-of-factly. "First the dust in the reactor will detonate violently, vaporising everything in this room and destroying the tower's foundations, leading to a chain reaction facilitated by Merlot's adjustments, that will cause the entirety of the tower's dust reserves to catastrophically explode.

'The tower will then collapse, crushing anyone not killed by the reserves exploding and most likely falling into the undercity. Until then the temperature will keep increasing to dangerous levels." With that, the bespectacled wizard went back to preventing the overload as Weiss was left regretting her question.

Jaune had thought looking down from the top of the atrium was bad, the view from outside Merlot's office was much worse, made even more so by the howling wind that threatened to pull him off the hard-light sword stabbed in just below the broken window.

Over the sound of the wind he could hear the sound of the Spider Droid's guns firing and Yang's shouting. _I can't leave her to fight that thing alone_ , Jaune thought as he grabbed onto the edge of the broken window. He could feel pieces of glass poking into his palm through his glove but he ignored it as he grabbed on with his other hand and let the sword disappear.

It was then, as he started to pull himself up that he saw the unmistakeable form of Blake swinging around the building, from what he could only assume was another window, and in through the broken windows.

When she swung in, she did so with both legs stretched out in front of her, and both arms outstretched above her head grasping the ribbon she swung in on. To Jaune, she looked like something straight off the pages of a comic book, and that was before she somehow slammed the robot with enough force to make it stumble back.

Jaune had now pulled his shoulders over the edge, and from where he was he could see how the fight had been changed by Blake's entrance.

The two wizards worked in perfect tandem, when one struck high the other would strike low, all ways from different sides. The machine struggled to keep track of either of the wizards as Yang would launch herself across the room with shots from her gauntlets, and Blake would disappear into shadows only to leap out from somewhere else.

But Jaune quickly realized a problem in the fight. Despite the repeated strikes from the two girls, the robot was showing no serious damage. It only took Jaune a few more seconds to realize why. Due to the firepower of the robot and how fast it could aim, Yang didn't have the time she needed to use one of her more powerful attacks.

This gave Jaune an idea, and although it wasn't a good one it was all he could come up with. As he finished climbing in through the window, he stood tall and focused his mind on the image Weiss had shown him during training.

"Light Make: Armor!"

As the words came out, white light coalesced around his body before taking shape. Greaves formed over his shoes and lower legs, then came a layered cuisse over his thighs, after that was an ornate breastplate, followed by armour over his upper arm and a vambrace layered similarly to the cuisse. Finally, the light gathered around his head forming a helmet that covered all but a slit for his eyes.

Jaune's spell hadn't gone unnoticed by the others in the room with Yang glancing at him as she dodged back from an attack. Even with all that had happened, she struggled to believe what she saw.

It wasn't the fact that Jaune was somehow back after going over the edge or that he had created armour, but the design of the armour itself was one Yang had seen once before. Weiss had shown team RWBY the image of that when telling them the story behind her scar.

Before she could think more on it, she noticed that the Spider Droid had noticed him as well, although it was hard not to when he was standing there like a six-foot bright white glow-stick. Deciding to go for the target that wasn't moving, the robot fired at Jaune with its four cannons.

Yang watched as, instead of dodging, Jaune braced himself and summoned a shield, one that seemed much more defined than it had before. The image of Jaune disappeared in a cloud of dust, smoke and rubble as the bright-blue energy projectiles slammed into where Jaune was standing.

Yang stood frozen as she watched the dust settle, praying to whoever might hear her that her friend would still be alive, when a voice called from the cloud.

"I've got its attention, now hit it Yang!"

Yang acted on Jaune's words and launched herself onto the back of the Spider Droid, landing with her hands on its head.

"Fire Magic: Dragon's Roar!"

The stream of fire washed over the robot's head and Yang's hands, her magic protected her from the heat but her clothes started to scorch from the proximity to the fire. When the flames subsided, Yang was left staring at the slightly blackened but otherwise unharmed robot head. The head then spun one-hundred and eighty degrees, causing Yang to lose her grip and flail around for a new handhold.

When she finally righted herself, she was left staring into a line of dinted glass, resembling an eye slit, that Yang guessed housed the cameras and sensors it used to see. Pulling her right arm back and clenching her fist, Yang prepared to attack.

"Fire Magic: Blazing Strike!"

Realizing its sight was at risk, the robot started spinning its body around and moving its gun arms around wildly to shake its attacker. A flailing arm struck Yang in the head and knocked her clear of the Spider Droid. The machine quickly moved to crush the wizard that had shown herself as the greatest threat.

"Shadow Trap!"

Blake's voice rang out across the office and as it did, hands of pitch black reached out from the machine's shadow and grabbed hold of it. Jaune, seeing an opportunity, summoned out Crocea Mors and charged at the restrained robot.

As he got close, the robot managed to point one of its gun arms in Blake's general direction and fire. Unable to move while her spell was in effect, Blake wasn't able to dodge in time and was blown of her feet, breaking the spell. The Spider Droid was free again, and just as Jaune had got within striking distance, the body spun and Jaune was smacked away by one of the arms, his magic armour being the only thing stopping the hit from shattering bones.

With the other two down the robot turned its attention back to Yang, just as she finished gathering her magic. "Fire Magic: Solar Flare!"

Ruby fired a trio of shots as a couple of Creeps tried to get through her failing ice barricade before hearing a sound behind her. She turned quickly, ready to deal death to any Grimm coming up the stairs, only for a hand to take a hold of Miló's barrel part way through the turn.

Panic momentarily overtook the young wizard's mind, until she saw that the one holding the barrel was Ren. Ruby released a sigh of relief. Help had arrived.

While Nora knelt next to Pyrrha and started barraging her with questions, _most_ of which were related to her injuries, Ren strode past Ruby towards the barricade, raising his weapon as he did so.

While Ruby's Crescent Rose suffered in close, tight spaces, Ren's StormFlower came into its own. A few controlled bursts of rapid gunfire cut down another group of Grimm before they could even make it to Ruby's barricade.

"Nora, can you carry Pyrrha?" Ren asked.

"On it," Nora replied, sounding far more serious than Ruby could ever remember hearing her.

"Good, then let's get moving back down."

"But Ren, we were meant to warn everyone that went to the top," Nora reminded him, worry evident in her voice.

"We can't warn them and help these two at the same time, and right now Pyrrha's injuries make her the priority," Ren countered. "We just have to hope Weiss succeeds."

"What are you talking about Ren? Why do you need to warn the others?" Ruby asked, fear creeping into her voice.

Ren took a breath before he explained. "Merlot is jamming our communications, has rigged the dust reactor in the basement to explode, and it is very likely that there was another trap prepared for those that made it to the top."

Ruby's eyes went wide with shock "We need to get up there and tell them. They could be in trouble, we need to help them."

"I already explained why we can't. Even if you went by yourself they would've already sprung whatever traps up there or be on their way down with Merlot. Either way there's not much you could do and you would only be making things more dangerous for Pyrrha." Ren countered, unnervingly calm despite all that was going on.

"I'll be fine," Pyrrha said weakly, her words however went ignored as Ruby and Ren squared off.

"That's my sister up there I can't just leave her!"

"Blake also went up. Those two can take care of themselves."

"Sure, they can take care of themselves, but what about Jaune!"

"What about Pyrrha."

Ruby opened her mouth to continue, but was interrupted as Nora's scroll rang, instantly gaining the attention of the whole group.

The girl, who had been silently watching the tense exchange, opened her scroll to be greeted with the sight of Weiss's face. It was obvious from a glance that Weiss had been working hard, the sweat running down her face and that she was no longer wearing her jacket being the clearest indicators.

"Nora, it was close, but Dr Oobleck and I were able to stop the overload and shut off the reactor. Have you made it to the top yet?"

"Hey Weiss! We aren't at the top yet. We did run into Ruby and Pyrrha though. Pyrrha's pretty banged up and I think Ruby almost shot Renny when we got here," Nora debriefed, the relief of being free from the threat of a reactor explosion lulling her back into her usual, cheerful self.

Weiss stared at Nora through the screen in a mix of shock and confusion. "Nora, could you please hand the scroll to someone else?"

"Okie-dokie," Nora said as she made to pass to Ren, only for Ruby to snatch it.

"Weiss! What's all this about a reactor exploding? What happened down there?" Ruby asked, gripping the scroll tightly.

"Never-mind that, it's all dealt with now. Why aren't you and Pyrrha at the top?" Weiss replied.

Ruby went to answer, but she stopped dead in her tracks as a piece of rubble far larger than any of them fell past them, from what could only have been the top of the atrium.

The fire of Yang's spell washed over the machine, its heat so intense that even in his armour, Jaune had to turn away from the blaze while Blake retreated into her shadow form. When the flames died away Yang was left exhausted, swaying on her feet where she stood.

As for the robot, it had steam coming off it in waves as it moved its gun arms away from where they had protected its head. Jaune felt his stomach drop at the sight as fear gripped his soul. The Spider Droid had taken such a strong attack from Yang and was still standing. _If it could take an attack like that and keep going, then what chance do we have?_ Jaune couldn't help but think.

It only got worse as the Spider Droid joined its four arms together to make one massive cannon that it then trained on Yang. As the gun charged, Yang planted her feet and raised her arms into a block as though she planned on taking the brunt of blast on her forearms.

Jaune made to run forward, intent on tackling Yang out of the way as she had done for him, only to be held back by Blake.

"What are you doing?!" he yelled. "That thing's going to kill Yang!"

"No, it won't," Blake intoned, her voice calm and sure. "She's got this."

It was then that the robot fired and a beam of bright blue slammed into Yang and pushed her back, before she lost her footing and was thrown across to the far end of the room. Jaune watched in horror as his friend was sent flying by the blast, but then his horror turned to shock and awe as Yang stood back up with her hair aflame and her eyes shining a bright red.

"What the-?" Jaune asked in shock.

"That's Yang's unique magic, a counter spell called the Flames of Vengeance. It allows her to turn an enemy's attack in to magical energy she can use in an all or nothing attack," Blake explained.

With a furious roar, Yang leapt though the air towards the Spider Droid and as she did Jaune had an idea.

"Yang! Hit the ground under it!" Jaune yelled.

Yang must have heard him as she changed targets, and as she came down she struck the ground between the Spider Droids two front legs with all of her might.

"Fire Magic: Super Blazing Strike!"

As Jaune expected, the ground, already weakened from the robot's constant bombardment, cracked and started to fall away. Blake raced forward, grabbed Yang and pulled her away from the rapidly spreading hole in the floor.

As the robot fell through the hole, unable to out race the collapse, Yang and Blake made a final leap to safety, the two of them tumbling along the ground together until they came to a stop with Blake lying on top of Yang.

Yang looked up at Blake with a tired grin and said. "This is pretty bold of you. You know Jaune's still in the room, right?" Her statement earned her a light-hearted punch in the arm.

Down on the ground floor, Weiss looked away from her scroll to see a massive robot falling from the top of the atrium. She did a quick calculation in her head and realised in horror that the robot was going to slam through the ground floor and into the reactor in the basement.

"Ruby! Get out of the tower now!" she yelled with as much urgency as she could.

At the same time, the blast doors over the building's entrance were blown in and standing there was one pissed off Coco.

"Now, which one of you ass-hats thought it would be a good idea to lock us outside?"

Instead of an answer, she got Weiss and Dr Oobleck bolting out the hole she made with a quick shout of "Run!" Trusting the urgency in their voice, Coco collapsed her minigun and chased after the fleeing wizards back into the ruined city. They barely made it across the street when the ground started to shake.

As Weiss had predicted, the large mass of the Spider Droid carried it through the ground floor and into the reactor room, where it exploded and, in doing, so set off the dust in the reactor. As Oobleck had anticipated, the ensuing explosion of several kilograms of lightning dust annihilated everything in the room, including the Spider Droid. The explosion was fierce enough to reach the Merlot Industries Tower dust reserves, a store holding enough dust to power the entire tower for a year, all igniting in an instant. The explosion ripped through the first ten levels of the tower and reached high into the atrium.

Rather than trying to navigate the passageways to the edge of tower, Nora blew apart every wall in her way as the four wizards raced to escape the building. Ren kept any Grimm at bay as Ruby struggled to assist the much taller Pyrrha.

With Nora's destructive path-finding, they managed to find and quickly destroy a window, clearing an exit for the group. Nora leaped out first with Ren diving after, both with their own landing strategies.

Ruby however, paused when she got to the edge, looking for somewhere to land. Quickly deciding on a landing zone, she called on her magic and Pyrrha and Ruby became a torpedo of red and bronze that flew across the street to the roof of a nearby building.

The trio of wizards up at the top, unaware of the reactor, were slower to react, only realising the extent of the danger as the whole room seemed to fall a meter. Without needing to say a word, the three ran to the shattered windows, being careful to avoid the once again growing hole in the floor.

Blake reached the window first and threw herself clear of the collapse. Jaune got to the window second and he stopped to check on Yang only to see the exhausted fire wizard just a few meters away when the floor dropped out from under her.

Jaune dived across the ground and managed to catch Yang's hand, only for the ground to collapse beneath him and drop them both into the atrium. Jaune couldn't stop the terrified cry that escaped his lips as they fell into the atrium.

Ruby placed Pyrrha down gently before calling out to Weiss, who was arriving on the rooftop with CFVY and Dr Oobleck.

"Weiss, there still up there!"

She didn't need to say anymore, after working together as much as they had, Weiss already knew what Ruby had in mind.

"Gravity Cannon!" the heiress called out as three glyphs appeared above Ruby pointing up and towards the tower.

Ruby gathered her power before jumping into the first glyph as she engaged her magic. The result was Ruby shooting towards the tower faster than a speeding bullet. The wind blasted her face, but she ignored it as she saw an opening as the tower fell to pieces.

Diving through a shattered window, Ruby ran as hard as she could through the passageways to get to the atrium as the ground alternated between shaking and dropping as walls buckled and broke around her. As she got to the atrium, she looked up to see rubble raining down through the space and in the middle of it all, was Jaune and Yang holding hands as they fell.

Without a second thought, Ruby shot up, using the falling rubble to push herself in different directions as she desperately tried to reach her falling friends. As she climbed a revelation hit her so hard she almost stopped. She could only carry one of them out. She simply didn't have the magical power necessary to carry two people out of a place like this at high speeds.

She could only assume that Jaune somehow knew or thought this as well, for as she got close, he pushed Yang down and towards Ruby. The young wizard could only manage a whispered "sorry," before she grabbed hold of her sister and made for an exit.

As Jaune fell, his head was a mess. Half of him wanted nothing more than to scream in terror as he hurtled towards certain doom, while the other half had calmly accepted his fate, knowing that if he had the chance to make the decision again, he would always push Yang towards her sister.

Just as he was ready to fully accept his fate, a clear path through one side of the building opened up, letting a tunnel of light shine into the atrium. As he fell through the light, he looked through the hole and saw Weiss and Pyrrha astride a glyph floating outside the building. In the second he saw them, he figured Pyrrha must have created the tunnel as she was on her knees with her hands stretched out, and seeing Pyrrha not just alive but awake filled him with relief.

Just as he was about to fall past the window of light, a white glyph appeared under him. He immediately felt his fall slow immensely before he changed direction so that he was now going towards one of the viewing balconies around the atrium.

He shot over the railing and landed on the ground, managing to roll with the impact. As he lay on his back with the building falling apart around him, he marvelled at what had just happened.

Weiss, with a narrow view through which to aim, and less than a second to react, had managed to catch his falling form and redirect it away from the atrium in the middle of a rain of debris. Jaune couldn't help but laugh. Whether it was from relief or something else he didn't know.

"I have the best magic teacher in the world!" he cheered loudly. Then the ground once again collapsed under him.

He hit the floor painfully as what had once been ground dropped a level. Struggling to his feet, he heard the section of balcony he was on start to groan. Not waiting to see what it would do, Jaune ran forward, leaping over a missing section of balcony to land on the relative safety of the other side as the section he had just been on collapsed.

The balcony above him started to groan with strain before giving out at an angle. Deciding to take the quickest path away from partially collapsed balcony, he ran into one of the passageways, past offices and cubicles and hurdling debris as he tried to get to a window, a small part of his mind reminding him he was heading in the opposite direction to where he had seen Pyrrha and Weiss.

The window was in sight when a chunk of the floor above fell into his path. Quickly backtracking to find another way out, he found his exit in the form of a corner office. He ran in as he heard crashing sounds from above.

Coming to an abrupt halt he summoned his armour once more as a metal safe bigger than he was crashed through the roof and continued through the floor of the office. Jaune fruitlessly scrambled for a handhold as the rest of the office floor followed the safe in its journey down, and brought Jaune with it.

From there it was one fall after another as Jaune was bounced around unceremoniously, his armour saving him from having his bones repeatedly shattered.

Whenever he found himself on a piece of flat ground, he was rolling out the way of debris from above moments later. The frequent jarring impacts made it hard to sustain his armour and straight up impossible to create anything else.

He eventually found himself flat on his back, battered and bruised, in what he could only assume was once someone's office. He could see the roof above him weakening, but he could no longer bring himself to get up. As it fell he brought his arms up to shield his face in a last pitiful attempt at saving himself, before the roof collapsed on him.

Outside, the others could only watch as the building collapsed upon itself as a cloud of dust and debris filled the streets. Any glimmer of hope that their friend could have survived was dashed against the rocks as the tower's foundations gave out and the ruin that was once the Merlot Industries Tower, fell into labyrinth of Mount Glenn's undercity.

* * *

Far away on Merlot's island, Dr Merlot found himself once again on the floor cowering away from a wizard.

He had thought those that came to rescue his test subject had got through his defences easily. The man in front of him may as well have walked through them. Not just that, he had no problem accessing his terminals, now equipped with a password, and tracking him to the control room where they now where.

The well-dressed wizard in front of him didn't need to make any threats, his entrance had done that for him.

"I-I know who you are!" Merlot exclaimed in disbelief as he took in the appearance of the man before him. "You're Roman Torchwick!"

Roman smiled cruelly. "Glad to see you've heard of me."

He then leaned forward on his cane and spoke in a soft, business-like tone. "You know, I actually meant to come visit here a lot sooner. Unfortunately, I've got a new boss at work, and she has really been keeping me busy the last few weeks. But none of that matters cause I'm here now, and since I'm here, I don't suppose you could be so kind as to give me everything you have on Jaune Arc."

Merlot rushed to his feet and hurried to comply, and as he did the wizard pulled a cigar from his white coat and lit it with a flame from his palm. In less than half a minute Merlot tracked down the files on his computer and had them printed out for the infamous criminal.

As he passed the documents to the wizard he spoke tentatively. "T-those documents w-won't do you much good." The wizard didn't seem to even notice he had spoken. Instead a blood red panel, that Merlot recognised as archive magic, had appeared over the printed pages and Torchwick seemed to be scanning each page before throwing it aside.

With a bit more confidence Merlot spoke again. "I was only able to do an initial assessment, and even that is worthless now that the boy is dead."

This got Roman's attention. "What makes you think he's dead, Doctor?"

"I-I set a trap in the Merlot Industries Tower. The chances of him surviving are miniscule at best."

"You know, I would have thought a man as smart as you would know the phrase, 'don't count your chickens before they hatch'. From what I hear the boy is a member of Beacon, and underestimating Beacon wizards is never a good idea."

Merlot remained silent, lest he say something that angered the dark wizard. Having finished scanning the pages, Roman dispersed the red panel and turned his gaze back to Merlot.

"Anything else relating to the boy?" After a second's hesitation Merlot moved to a safe in the wall. After entering a code and opening it, he removed a syringe gun loaded with a bright blue-green liquid.

"This is what I was planning on injecting the boy with."

Roman inspected the syringe gun with a raised eyebrow before storing it under his coat.

"Well I think that just about settles my business here," Roman said cheerily, as Merlot looked down and breathed a sigh of relief. "I just have one more question."

Merlot looked back up and his blood froze in his veins in spite of the room's raising temperature. Arrayed behind Torchwick were flames shaped into the burning eyes and blazing grin of a jack-o-lantern.

"Are you a man of faith?"

The sight had Merlot tripping over his own feat as he tried desperately to distance himself from the wizard.

"W-wait! Y-you don't have to do this. W-we can m-make a deal," Merlot begged desperately, tears spilling from his one normal eye. "I don't want to die!"

Guild Master Ozpin and Peter Port approached the entrance to Merlot's island facility, only to stop as they saw another figure exiting.

"What are you doing here, Roman?" Ozpin called out.

The dark wizard stopped and stared at the two guild wizards before him. "Oh, hey Ozzy. How's that guild of yours going? And while we're at it, what brings you to this little slice of paradise?" Before Ozpin could answer, Roman continued. "Oh that's right, Merlot said something about a death trap he had set up for some of your kids. You're probably here about that right?"

"Mount Glenn was a trap?!" Port exclaimed, as Ozpin stared impassively at the criminal and said nothing.

Roman laughed. "You didn't even know? That's just hilarious. You're only now realising you sent your guildmates to their deaths. You know, you should really take a lesson from the Guild Master and work on your poker-face fat man."

"Is Merlot still alive?" Ozpin asked, ignoring what Roman had said.

"Do you even need to ask?" Roman shook his head in disappointment. "You know I've never been one to leave loose ends. Speaking of ends, I think it's time I left."

Port stepped forward and brandished his blunderbuss-axe "We're not letting you leave," he declared.

Roman gave the two wizards a mocking grin. "What makes you think I'm giving you a choice?"

As though on cue, a small girl wearing white, pink and brown and wielding a parasol appeared at Roman's side, grabbed onto his sleeve, and then the two disappeared, leaving the guild wizards alone on the island.


	9. Lost and Found

**AN: Sorry for taking so long to update, I had a bad case of writer's block. I do plan on seeing this fic through to it's end so no matter how long it takes, if you don't see a label saying this fic is complete, then there will be an upload coming.**

 **Beta reader/Editor: Wyncrer the Sage**

* * *

No one spoke a word among the twelve mages gathered at the edge of the crater that had once been Merlot Industries, with Ruby kneeling at the precipice of where the road fell away into the undercity.

While on the outside she was silent as tears pooled in her eyes, inside her head she raged at herself. _If only you'd been stronger_ , she berated herself. _Jaune's dead because you were weak_. The words circled around endlessly in her head as she wallowed in self-pity.

A quick look around the other wizards revealed a similar mood. Team CFVY, the ones that knew Jaune the least, stood removed from the others but in reverent silence no-less.

Nora held tight to Ren, as though he too might suddenly be taken away. Pyrrha sat against a nearby wall, with her head leaning back against the bricks and her shoulders slumped in defeat.

Yang leaned side-on to the wall near Pyrrha, her gaze fixed between her feet. Weiss stood by herself, the only outward sign of her emotional state came from her hands, where she had formed fists so tight her nails were cutting into her palm. Blake stood in the middle of it all and apart from team CFVY, she knew Jaune the least, so while she too was saddened by what happened, she was not as affected as those that had been closer to him.

Oobleck looked over the younger wizards, looking like he had aged ten years in the minutes following the tower's collapse.

Jaune was woken by the feeling of something dripping onto his face. He didn't open his eyes immediately, instead squeezing them shut as his body made him painfully aware of the mass of bruises covering his body and the fact he was feeling a weird tightness in his left hand.

He opened his eyes to see a dome of white light surrounding him. He vaguely remembered creating it before losing consciousness as the building collapsed around him. It was by the light of this construct that he saw what was causing the 'tightness' in his hand. Having pierced his dome, a piece of steel reinforcement had stabbed straight through the palm of his left hand.

It was then the pain registered and Jaune could do nothing to hold back the scream that tore out of him as the pain nearly had him blacking out again. On reflex, he tried to move his hand away from the source of his pain, only to send another burst of pain through his palm that had him seeing spots.

It took Jaune several minutes before he could form a coherent thought through the pain, and when he did, it was for his guildmates. He needed to know if Yang and Ruby made it out, and if Blake had escaped. So, with small and careful movements, he tried to reach down to his scroll without setting off another wave of pain in his left hand.

"This is bullshit!" Yang finally snapped, shattering the silence. "There's no way he's dead! He can't be!"

"Yang!" Weiss shouted, the one word warning her to be quiet.

"Shut up!" Yang roared back. "You might be willing to give up on him, but I'm not." With that, the fire wizard stormed towards the crater's edge, only to be stopped by Blake grabbing her arm.

"Yang please just stop. There's no way he could have survived that and you know it," Blake tried.

"No! I don't!" Yang snapped as she pulled her arm from Blake's grasp, not noticing how Ruby put her hands to her ears to block out the argument. Yang only made it a few steps before Weiss stepped in front of her.

"Out of my way Weiss," the fire wizard growled down at her smaller teammate. Instead of backing down, Weiss slapped her across the face. The strike didn't hurt so much as it caught her off guard, and it was in that moment where her surprise outweighed her anger that Weiss spoke.

"Get your head together Xiao Long!" The words weren't quite a shout, but they came out loud and commanding. Weiss took a deep breath before continuing in a calmer tone. "You're in denial. None of us want him to be gone, but we have to face the truth." The words had their desired effect as the anger visibly faded from Yang, being replaced with the most defeated look Weiss had ever seen on the brawler. She went to comfort her friend, but was interrupted by the sound of Ruby's scroll suddenly bursting to life.

All heads turned towards the girl in the red cloak as she pulled the scroll from a pouch on her belt. The moment Ruby opened the scroll, a gasp escaped her mouth as the scroll dropped from her hands. Yang rushed towards her sister only to freeze as a voice came from the dropped scroll.

"Ruby? Ruby are you there?" Jaune's voice rang out from the device loud enough for all to hear. The response was immediate, with the rest of team RWBY rushing to gather around the scroll as Ruby picked it up with shaking hands.

"Jaune?" Ruby's voice was quiet, as though scared to hope, but Jaune heard it.

"Ruby! You're alright! Thank the Gods. How's Yang?"

Yang couldn't stop a short laugh from escaping her. "Seriously Jaune? You just had a building dropped on you and you're asking if I'm alright? We should be asking you that."

"She's right," Weiss cut in. "Are you alright? Were you able to get out of the building?"

"Uh, I got close," Jaune answered. This time Yang could hear something in his voice, something she was used to hearing after a fight. It was the sound of someone pushing through pain to speak through gritted teeth.

"Jaune, are you hurt?" Yang asked seriously. Jaune was silent for a few seconds, during which Pyrrha, who was leaning heavily on Nora, and Ren joined the huddle.

"Well I've got bruises in just about every place you can have bruises," Jaune tried to joke. His poor attempt at humour fell flat in the tense atmosphere that had descended on those gathered around the scroll.

"This isn't the time for humour, Arc. It's a miracle you even survived the collapse," Weiss scolded.

"Yeah, you're right," Jaune sighed. "Truth is, I'm trapped. My magic is holding back the rubble for the meantime, but I've no idea how long that will hold out." And just like that, any relief they had felt at finding out that Jaune was alive was replaced with dread. "And then there's the case of a piece of metal sticking through my hand."

The wizards were silent for a moment before Ruby spoke up in a determined voice, "Don't worry Jaune, we're going to get you out of there." The rest of team RWBY nodded in agreement and stood to leave, but were stopped as Oobleck's voice called out.

"Not so fast girls." When they had all turned to face him he continued. "While you may be raring to go, not everyone here is in a condition to follow."

The words had team RWBY looking at Pyrrha. Dr Oobleck had done what he could in terms of first aid, but it was impossible to miss the heavy breathing and the blood staining her bandages. It wasn't just her, though. Team CFVY, after being stuck battling Grimm outside the tower, were running on fumes.

"Doctor Oobleck, I can keep going," Pyrrha argued.

"While you maybe the 'Invincible Girl' Miss Nikos, you are not the 'Invulnerable Girl'. Your wounds need medical attention, team CFVY need rest, and the rest of you need a guide." The last part of the doctor's words had team RWBY looking between each other in confusion so Oobleck elaborated.

"If you were planning on jumping straight into that crater I would have to advise against it. The remains of the tower down there are about as far from stable as you can get. If you jumped down there, not just would you risk getting yourself trapped in a smaller collapse, you risk setting off a chain reaction that could crush Mr Arc." Team RWBY looked down at their feet guiltily, as jumping straight down was exactly what they had been planning. Oobleck continued. "Luckily, I happen to know a nearby entrance to the undercity, and my way around it."

With Oobleck's announcement finished, Coco walked over and took Pyrrha off Nora's hands as RWBY, Ren and Nora made ready to leave with Dr Oobleck. As they set off at a brisk pace, Weiss called over to Ruby, who still had her scroll call to Jaune going.

"Keep him talking," Weiss told her. "Chances are he has a concussion so we don't want him losing consciousness."

"Got it," Ruby said confidently. She turned to her scroll and realized she had no idea what to talk about. "Uh, hi," she said awkwardly to the scroll. She was pretty sure she heard the sound of Wiess facepalming, but Jaune replied with a slightly less awkward "Hey." _I said something and he responded, that's what conversations are,_ Ruby reassured herself, _don't know what Weiss is facepalming about, I'm doing great._

However, between following the fast-moving doctor and avoiding tripping over on the crumbling road, Ruby was struggling to come up with something else to say. In the end, it was Jaune who gave her inspiration.

"Why don't you tell me about your team?" Ruby's second favourite blond asked, his voice sounding slightly strained through the scroll.

"What's there to tell," Ruby said in what she hoped sounded like her usual cheerful self, "Blake likes reading, Yang likes setting things on fire and Weiss likes yelling at people."

"Hey!" Weiss yelled.

"See what I mean?" This managed to get a small, but slightly pained laugh from Jaune.

"So, what kind of books does Blake read?" Jaune asked.

"Well mostly she reads books about souls and stuff, but this one time when I was in her room I found this book called 'Ninjas of Love', I decided to give it a read and-"

"Ruby!" Blake called out, her tone threatening.

"What about Yang? Do you have any embarrassing stories about her?" Jaune asked, sounding a lot more interested than he did when asking about Blake's taste in books.

Ruby couldn't fight the smile that came to her face. If there was one thing she could talk about more than weapons, it was Yang. Mostly because weapons didn't mess up nearly as much Yang did. "You could say I have a few stories," Ruby said, a ting of mischief sneaking into her voice despite the situation. "For example, there's the fact that Yang wet the bed until she was-"

"RUBY!" Yang's shout was far worse than Blake's, threatening death should Ruby ever finish that sentence.

"Give that here you dolt," Weiss said as she pulled the scroll from Ruby's hands.

She looked down at the scroll and Ruby's contact picture for Jaune, a photo of him shovelling chicken nuggets into his mouth, stared back. Rather than mentally stumbling around for conversation ideas like Ruby, she already had one thought up and it was, somewhat ironically, Ruby that had given her the idea.

"So Jaune, do you have any siblings?"

"Yeah, I actually have seven sisters," Jaune replied quickly. Weiss' brain momentarily ground to a halt. _Seven sisters?! How was that even possible?_ Weiss had hoped he would have a few siblings to keep him talking for a while but she never would have expected that many.

"That's quiet a few," Weiss replied diplomatically. "Could you tell me a bit about them?"

"Not much to tell. They're all older than me. None of them are wizards though," Jaune answered. "They use to teach me a bunch of things like dancing and sewing."

"You know how to dance?" Weiss asked incredulously. She had seen how clumsy and awkward Jaune was during their training and struggled to believe he was capable of dancing.

"That's, uh… do you have any siblings?" Jaune not so subtly tried to redirect. Weiss would have to be blind not to see through Jaune intentions, but decided to spare him any potential embarrassment and answer him.

"Unlike you, I only have one older sister," she said with a small smirk, which then fell from her face as she continued, "and I used to have a younger brother."

"Oh." Jaune was silent for a few seconds. "Sorry if I brought up something you don't want to think about."

"It's fine," Weiss said quickly. There was silence between the two of them once again until Jaune spoke up.

"Is it okay if I ask what happened?"

Weiss sighed. Her goal had been to start a conversation that would keep his interest, and she could tell he was genuinely curious about what happened. If it meant keeping the idiot awake and alive, she supposed it wouldn't hurt to tell him.

"It happened a few years ago…"

* * *

Weiss Schnee strode confidently through the main hall of the Atlas Guild, with the guild crest of a spear over two cog like circles, the crest of the Atlas Guild, proudly adorning her left Weiss knew that, as a Schnee, she was supposed to always have her emotions under strict control, she couldn't help the slight skip in her step as she made her way over to where she knew Winter would be waiting.

Weiss felt her eagerness was perfectly justified, for today she would be going on a quest with her sister. Not just any quest, an S-class one.

It had taken a fair amount of convincing and proving herself to Guild Master Ironwood to get permission for this, but today all her hard work would be rewarded. Today she would get to glimpse the heights her sister had achieved and would know what she was working towards every time she trained.

As she approached the notice board her good mood only increased as she saw her sister was accompanied by her little brother. Unlike her and her sister, Whitley did not accel in the use of magic and Weiss saw this as a perfect opportunity to lord her abilities over him.

"Hello Winter. Whitley," Weiss greeted as she drew close.

"Hello to you too Weiss," Whitley replied with a polite smile. "You seem to be in an unusually good mood this morning."

"Not really, I'm just relishing in the feeling of hard work paying off. Maybe one day you'll know how that feels," Weiss said with a small smirk.

Whitley failed to stop the grimace that flashed across his features as Weiss spoke. "Just because I don't have the same aptitude for magic as you do, doesn't mean I don't know about hard work. And quiet honestly, I find all the fighting you do barbaric and beneath someone like me."

"That's enough you two," Winter cut in. "Weiss, you know better than to tease your brother about his magic, and Whitley, you shouldn't be demeaning the effort your sister and everyone else at this guild has put into honing their craft."

The two younger siblings sighed and looked down, faces burning with embarrassment from being scolded in public. "Yes Winter," they muttered in unison.

Satisfied the matter was resolved, Winter turned to address Weiss fully "Now, am I to believe you came all the way over here just to tease Whitley, or would you like to know the quest I chose for us?"

Weiss' mood instantly returned to its previous heights, but she was fortunately able to keep it in control enough to manage a polite response. "Of course, sister."

Winter smiled at the answer and held up a piece of paper in her right hand. The writing was facing towards Weiss, with the words 'S-class' printed in red across the top. The young mage eagerly scanned the document and found herself feeling… underwhelmed.

"A King Taijitu? Are you sure about this?" Weiss asked apprehensively.

"What's wrong dear sister? Is the quest not up to your standards?" Whitley asked in a smug tone.

"You shouldn't be so quick to underestimate this quest Weiss," Winter answered before Weiss could give a biting response to Whitley's question. "I know you have defeated a King Taijitu before, but I assure that this will be noticeably more difficult. For one, this Grimm appears to be rather old and has no doubt developed a certain level of cunning."

"Cunning? From a Grimm? Surely you can't be serious Winter?" Whitley laughed. "Everyone knows the Grimm are mindless."

"Shows what you know," Weiss said with a huff.

"Maybe Weiss was right in her claims about you and hard work," Winter said coldly, shocking Whitley into silence. "If you had bothered to spend any time researching Grimm, you would know that the older they get the more intelligent they get. Grimm are not called mindless because they lack the ability to think, but rather because their desire to kill humans lacks rational motivation."

"Maybe you should join us on this quest Whitley," Weiss chimed in. "Even if for nothing more than to use it as an opportunity to clear up some of your ignorance." The comment had Whitley heatedly glaring at Weiss.

Winter spoke up to once again clear the tension between the siblings "Weiss, I don't believe that-" only to be cut off by Whitley.

"Actually, I think it's a wonderful idea." Seeing Winter open her mouth to argue he continued. "Don't worry, I will be sure to stay well clear of the fighting so not to get in the way. I will simply be there in order to observe the two of you at work, and see if the 'cunning' of a Grimm is anything next to the intelligence of a human."

"So, you admit that we're prime examples of human intelligence?" Weiss asked with a smirk.

"Winter, yes. You? Well… every experiment needs a control." It was only Winter's hand on her shoulder that stopped Weiss grabbing Whitley by the collar and giving him a piece of her mind.

"Are you serious about coming along?" Winter asked, her voice deadly serious. Whitley nodded with a smile.

"Winter, I was joking when I suggested he come along. You know that right?" Weiss asked, a slight note of panic creeping into her voice. Winter ignored her and continued speaking to Whitley.

"You must agree to stay well clear of combat and obey every instruction I give you to the letter. Understood?"

"Of course," Whitley agreed with another nod and a slightly bigger smile.

"Get your snow gear and meet us in the hangar," Winter commanded. With one last mocking smile to Weiss, Whitley left to get ready.

As soon as Whitley was out of earshot, Weiss turned to her sister.

"Please tell me this was some elaborate joke and we're not actually bringing Whitley with us?" Weiss asked hopefully.

"Weiss, have you ever known me to jest about a job?"

"No, of course not. It's just… I had to work hard and prove myself to get this opportunity, yet it's just being given to him. I'm sure you can understand while I might feel cheated by this."

"You're right," Winter reassured. "You have proven yourself, which is why you will be fighting by my side as an equal, while Whitley will be watching as nothing more than a spectator. Whether you know it or not, you raised a valuable point in your arguing with Whitley. He lacks knowledge of the world outside the city walls, and as more experienced mages, it is our responsibility to educate him."

Winter's words filled Weiss with pride and made her even more eager to start the mission than before.

As it turns out, Whitley was a terrible travelling companion. The entire bullhead ride out to their destination, the remote town that had put up the request, had been spent listening to Whitley complain about how uncomfortable the seats were, clearly unaware that seats alone were a rarity for those travelling by bullhead.

And it didn't end when they disembarked either. Between the less-than-impressive appearance of the town, the biting wind and the ankle-deep snow, Whitley had found no end of things to whine about. So far, the only time he had managed to stay silent was when they were getting information from the town's mayor.

It was there that the Schnee siblings learned that their prey was lurking in a nearby woodland and had attacked any of the town's people that tried going there to gather wood or hunt.

The following trek had been another half-hour of complaints, only stopping when they finally arrived at the forest. Weiss was certain this was the first time she was relieved to have finally arrived at the hunting grounds of a possibly ancient and definitely murderous Grimm.

Without a word being said, Winter and Weiss removed the coats they had been wearing, revealing thinner jackets underneath, and dumping their coats at the base of a tree. It would make the experience of hunting the Grimm a lot colder, but when the fight started the coats would only slow them down, especially as the snow was deeper out here. To this end, the Schnee girls had also exchanged their usual heals for hiking boots.

"Whitley, stay close to us and be careful," Winter ordered.

"What?" Whitley asked, sounding aghast. "Wasn't the deal that I stay far away from the fighting?"

"It was," Winter agreed. "But while we're looking for the beast, it will be best if you stay close so the Taijitu doesn't try going after you."

"If you don't like that idea, you can always stay out here by yourself," Weiss offered.

Whitley grumbled but moved closer.

The three moved into the forest in a single file. Winter, as the most powerful and most experienced, led the group, while Weiss followed close behind and Whitley reluctantly trailed behind.

The siblings entered the forest in silence, listening out for anything that might give away a hidden or approaching Grimm. Five minutes later, Weiss was left to mourn the silence as Whitley spoke up.

"So, what exactly are we looking for?"

"A King Taijitu is a large Grimm, and if it's in a forest it has most likely set itself up in a clearing where it can fully spread out. If we see any broken trees, that is usually a sign that it, or another Grimm has been through," Weiss answered, making no attempt to hide her irritation. Fortunately for her, the knowledge that the Grimm they were hunting might not be the only one out there was enough to convince Whitley to remain silent.

It wasn't long before they spied a clearing ahead. Staying low and moving slowly they approached. Winter approached the edge of the clearing, drawing her weapon as Weiss did the same.

As Winter got within a few feet of the clearing, she came to a halt and held up a hand. Seeing the signal for what it was, Weiss stopped in her tracks, only have Whitley bump into her back. Before she could turn to snap at him, something tore through the air towards Winter, with the eldest Schnee barely rolling out of the way in time.

Weiss and Whitley, less prepared for the attack, were knocked off their feet as the large object smashed into the ground. As snow rained down around them, Weiss looked towards what had attacked them to see the white head of a King Taijitu rising off the ground from where it had tried to smash her sister.

Winter had been right when she said not to underestimate this quest. The head she saw in front of her easily twice as long as she was tall and had a plethora of bone spikes rising from the top of its head like a crown.

Hearing Whitley scream, Weiss whipped her head around to see Whitley staring into the face of an emaciated corpse that had been uncovered by the impact. Before she could shout a warning, Whitley was on his feet and running away from the dead body, and into the clearing.

Trusting that Winter could handle the white half of the Grimm, Weiss chased after her brother. As she ran, she noticed unusually large mounds of snow in the clearing. Realising what the mounds were hiding, Weiss activated a glyph, rocketing towards Whitley and tackling him to the ground, just in time to avoid the black half of the King Taijitu lunging up from beneath the snow.

With panic ruling his mind, Whitley pushed Weiss off of himself and resumed running, quickly reaching the end of the clearing opposite to where they had come from. Knowing she couldn't leave Whitley alone in the wilderness, Weiss gave chase. As the two raced into the trees, the sound of trees being crushed by a great weight followed them, a clear giveaway that the Taijitu was still after them.

As they ran, Weiss could see a break in the trees ahead. As Whitley reached it he slid to a stop and as Weiss got closer she realised why. The break in the trees was caused by a ravine several metres wide.

Changing tactics, Weiss turned to face the pursuing creature. As the gargantuan Grimm closed in, Weiss spun the chamber of Myrtenaster to select the ice dust stored inside, she then plunged the tip into the ground, putting almost all of her ice dust into creating a wall of ice to stop the beast.

Believing she had brought them some time, Weiss turned to hurry over to Whitley, only for her barricade of ice to explode as the black half of the King Taijitu smashed through it. Weiss was knocked off balance by the force of it, and had no time to recover before the Taijitu, blinded by the kicked-up ice and snow, ran into her.

The only thing that stopped her being crushed was that the Grimm's head was facing down so she was sent tumbling over the top of its head instead. The crown of bone spikes tore through her jacket and cut into her skin, before she was past them and left to uselessly bounce off its round body.

It was as she lay on the snow, winded and bleeding, that she heard Whitley scream, the sound barely registering over her ringing ears.

She tilted her head to see her brother, incapable in that moment of doing anything else. All she could do was watch as her brother stood paralysed with fear, directly in the path of the monster. Weiss screamed out to her brother to run, to dodge, to do anything, her own words inaudible through the ringing in her ears.

Whitley's eyes made contact with hers, his eyes begging her for help she could not give, and a moment later he was lost behind the head of the Grimm.

* * *

"Weiss, we're getting close!" Ruby called out, the young girls words bringing an abrupt end to Weiss' story. As Weiss looked ahead through the crumbling buildings that made up Mount Glenn's undercity, she could see the almost literal mountain of rubble that was all that remained of the once proud Merlot Industries Tower.

"Hey Weiss?" Jaune spoke up through the scroll, his voice noticeably quieter and more strained then it had been earlier. "I can hear something moving above me. Is that you guys?"

It only took a moment for Weiss to deduce what Jaune was hearing. Trapped, bleeding and in pain as he was, the young wizard had essentially become a Grimm magnet.

"Just hold on a bit longer Jaune, we're almost there," Weiss answered before raising her head to address the rest of the group. "We need to hurry!"

The wizards nodded in unison and their fast jog turned into a sprint. At the increased pace, the team made it to the ruins in seconds. Once there it was easy to see what area Jaune was buried under, because it was the same area that had a pack of Beowolves furiously digging away at the rubble.

Without hesitating for a moment, Yang hurled herself at the pack with a roar. The closest Beowolf was sent flying accompanied by the sound of Yang yelling, "Fire Magic: Blazing Strike!"

Before the monsters could react to the new threat, Yang had moved to her next victim, getting in closer than the Beowolf's long arms could deal with. In an impressive display of strength, Yang grabbed the Grimm and lifted it over her head before using blasts from her gauntlets to launch the beast at one of its pack-mates.

Another Beowolf took a swing at her, only for Yang to catch the strike on her right gauntlet, while her left hand released a stream of fire that vaporised the Grimm's head. The enraged fire-wizard turned to the few remaining Beowolves, and with a shout of "Dragon's roar!" she wiped them from the face of Remnant.

With the threat dealt with and Jaune's rescue imminent, Weiss handed Ruby her scroll back and stepped closer to the rubble.

"Blake, see if you can get Jaune out."

Weiss' words came out as more of a command then a question, but Blake nodded regardless and sunk into her shadow form before disappearing into the rubble. With that dealt with, Weiss closed her eyes to focus on gathering her magical energy. When she felt she had gathered enough, she pointed Myrtenaster towards where Jaune was buried and called out "Gravity Magic: Low Gravity!"

As soon as the words left her mouth, a large white glyph appeared over where Yang was standing. Needing no instruction, the rest of the group converged on the scene, dust and small rocks kicked up by their steps staying in the air, as they started to move the now significantly lighter rubble away. As they did this, Weiss held her position, keeping the spell in effect as the others worked.

Blake soon returned, but to everyone's concern, she returned alone.

"What happened Blake? Did you find him?" Yang asked, making no effort to hide her worry.

"I found him, but I couldn't get him out," Blake replied, obviously frustrated by her lack of success.

"Why couldn't you get him out? There should be plenty of shadows down there," Yang demanded

"He's set up a barrier," Blake explained. "It's what's stopping the rubble from crushing him, but the light it's giving off is also stopping me from reaching him."

"Then there's only one thing we can do," Ruby cut in. "We keep digging until we reach him. When he was talking to Weiss he said he could hear the Beowolves, so he must be close right?" Ruby directed the last part at Blake who nodded in confirmation.

With the knowledge that their goal was close, the wizards dug with increased intensity. At the increased pace, it was only a few minutes later that Nora lifted a piece of concrete bigger than herself and white light shone out of the newly unveiled space. The relief and excitement that spread through the wizards was almost tangible.

"We've almost got you out Jaune!" Ruby cried out excitedly.

Yang grabbed hold of a large piece of reinforced concrete, but when she tried to move it a scream echoed out from beneath the barrier of light that had everyone freezing in place. Remembering Jaune's words about a piece of metal through his hand, Yang looked under the piece she was holding to see a steel rod coming from it disappear into the barrier.

Knowing she couldn't move the rubble while it was connected to Jaune, and she couldn't get him out until it was moved, and so she attempted to get his attention.

"Jaune? I'm going to try cut the metal going through your construct, ok?"

Unsure whether or not he heard her and unable to hear a response, Yang had to go ahead anyway. Straightening out her hand as though going for a karate chop, Yang gathered magic in her hand, strengthening the muscle and bone, as well as creating a flame as hot as possible around the appendage. With a swift strike, Yang's hand cleaved through the metal, leaving two glowing ends in her wake.

Yang barely managed to catch both herself and the debris she had been about to lift when the barrier of light gave out. After taking a moment to throw the piece clear, Yang dropped down next to Jaune.

"Jaune?" She asked as she knelt next to her friend. When Jaune didn't respond and she noticed his eyes were closed, she quickly checked his pulse, releasing a breath she didn't realise she was holding when she felt a steady beat.

Looking at his left hand, she deduced he had passed out from pain as there was a section of the bar smeared with fresh blood. His hand was far from his only injury. While not much skin showed through his outfit, his jeans and hoodie were severely torn and his armour was a mess of dents and scratches.

As she raised her head to call for someone to help get him out, Oobleck appeared in a blink on Jaune's other side. The older wizard lifted the unconscious teen as easily as he would a small child.

"I shall get Mr Arc back to the Bullheads. The rest of you make your way back to the surface together," was all he said before disappearing in another blink.

Weiss had released her spell when she had seen Yang toss the last piece clear, however holding the spell for the duration of their excavation had taken its toll and the gravity mage was down on one knee, supporting herself with Myrtenaster, trying to catch her breath.

"You okay?" A voice asked.

Weiss looked up to see Ruby squatting in front of her, her face filled with genuine concern.

"I'm fine, just a little exhausted," Weiss reassured.

"I wasn't just asking about the exhaustion," Ruby added. Weiss confusion must have shown because Ruby continued. "That story you told Jaune. I know talking about your family isn't something you like to do."

"I'm fine," Weiss repeated, sterner than last time. "That all happened three years ago, and it's hardly a secret." With more effort than she cared to admit, Weiss pushed herself to her feet. "Let's just hurry up and get out of here, If I never see this place again, it'll be too soon."

"Same here," Ruby agreed as she rose to her feet, before the company followed Oobleck out of the cavern.

* * *

 **AN: So Weiss gets some backstory. I know the backstory Weiss gave is very far from canon, but this is an AU so expect everyone to have an at least slightly different backstory. Some might have also noticed a bit of a parallel between the Schnee siblings and the Strauss siblings of Fairy Tail. Both are a set of three siblings, all with white hair and a German last name starting with S. And so Weiss' flash-back was meant to echo the quest where the Strauss family lost their youngest, without the Edolas element.**

 **As always, constructive criticism is appreciated.**

 **Next chapter: Team CRDL**


	10. Infighting Part-One

**Beta reader/Editor: Wyncrer the Sage**

 **\+ some helpful advice from Korzark**

* * *

"I'm gonna do it!" Yang announced to her friends. "Today I'm gonna start training Jaune!"

Blake looked up from her book, not trying to hide her annoyance at the loud interruption, as Ruby paused in the middle of eating and Weiss barely glanced up from her bagel.

"Wow guys, try not to overdo it on the excitement," Yang said when no-one voiced a response.

"Well, you did kinda have a point when you said you didn't have much in common with his fighting style," Ruby reasoned. "So when you say something like that, we're less excited and more…" Ruby's face scrunched up as she tried to think of the word she was looking for.

"Apprehensive," Weiss supplied.

"Yeah! What Weiss said," Ruby agreed.

"Oh come-on, it's not that bad," Yang argued. "I've been thinking, and there are a few things about fighting with magic that someone like him might not know that I can teach him. And since Pyrrha shut me down when I asked her to train him, someone's gotta teach the guy to throw a punch."

This got a stronger response, with Weiss' eyes widening and Ruby sitting up straight. Unfortunately, Yang saw none of this as she was already moving away from the dining hall table in search of Jaune.

"Why doesn't she know Pyrrha's already training Jaune? Weiss quickly asked Ruby.

"I thought she knew," Ruby answered with a shrug. "She told me she was going to ask Pyrrha, and then with everything that happened after, I never asked how it went."

* * *

Jaune raised his shield arm and ducked his head, hiding behind his shield as blows rained down like metal hail. The shield in question wasn't the one he made with his magic, but the metal one that doubled as his sheath. Previous attempts had shown that he could not hope to match this opponent in speed and skill, leaving him to desperately defend himself as he tried to find an opportunity to counter.

His opponent's short sword flashed across in a horizontal strike that Jaune blocked straight on with his shield, the force behind the blow adding to the growing ache in his shield arm. He had no time to rest, though, as his enemy made another horizontal slash, this time towards his right, forcing him to step back with his right foot, to block it with his shield.

Unrelenting, Jaune's opponent drew their arm back to lunge forward with a thrust. Knowing he couldn't last much longer, Jaune took a chance and instead of blocking, he swung his shield to smack the incoming sword off track.

Seeing the opportunity he had been waiting for, Jaune stepped forward with his right foot as he swung his sword down diagonally, aiming to cut through his opponent's centre of mass. The strike was easily blocked by their circular shield, but Jaune didn't let up, pivoting on his right foot to bring his left foot forward, in doing so putting his entire weight behind his strike as he swung the blade horizontally towards his opposition's midsection. Again, the strike was blocked, but this time the force was enough to slightly stagger his enemy.

Seeing this as an opening, Jaune lunged forward with his sword held out in his right hand.

Jaune realised he had over-extended himself in the same moment his opponent side-stepped his stab , before stepping into his guard and smacking the pommel of their short sword into his forehead.

"Ow!" Jaune called out in pain as he stumbled backwards rubbing his forehead, almost falling over onto the training room floor.

"Sorry!" Pyrrha called out as she sheathed her sword on her back and rushed to check on Jaune, pushing his hand out of the way to see if she had caused any damage to his head.

"It's fine Pyrrha. I was just being overdramatic, it didn't even hurt that much," Jaune reassured her. "Seriously, if you need to check on anything it should be my arm, you really have one heck of a swing."

"Consider it a lesson in shield use; while the shield is more durable than skin and bone, it doesn't miraculously stop all damage. Next time you should try using the shield to deflect blows instead of catching them all straight on," Pyrrha finished with an encouraging smile.

"Well, I think I'm gonna have a hard time forgetting that lesson," Jaune said with a small grimace as he stretched his left arm.

"Sorry. I was trying to hold back," Pyrrha replied sheepishly. Jaune just looked at her in shock.

"I'm probably going to be feeling this fight for the rest of the week and that was you pulling your punches?" Jaune asked sounding dismayed.

"Yeah," Pyrrha replied nervously with one hand coming up to scratch the back of her head.

"Okay, yeah, that's fine. I mean it makes sense, you've been doing this for years you're obviously way ahead of me," Jaune rationalised. "So just out of curiosity, how much effort were you using, in terms of like, percent, and be honest."

"Are you sure?" Pyrrha asked, clearly feeling uncertain about answering Jaune's question.

"Don't worry Pyrrha, seriously. I'm a big boy, I can handle it. What were you going at? Like fifty, sixty-percent? Something like that?"

"…Ten," came the quiet reply.

"What was that?" Jaune asked, sure that he had misheard.

"Ten percent," Pyrrha said loud enough for Jaune to clearly hear as she looked down at the ground. When a few seconds passed without Jaune saying a word, Pyrrha looked up to see Jaune staring at her slacked jawed.

"Jaune?" she asked tentatively. Hearing his named seemed to snap him out of his trance like state, as he closed his mouth and a hand came up to massage his brow as he let out a deep breath.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," Jaune repeated, trying to convince himself. "Just, ten-percent? Really?"

"Maybe less," Pyrrha admitted.

The hand that had been massaging his forehead slid down his face in defeat. "And my self-esteem just jumped off a cliff."

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," Pyrrha insisted, holding out her hands in a placating gesture. "It's just like you said earlier, I've been doing this for years and you've only just started." Unknown to her, though, this simply further cemented in Jaune's mind just how far behind his new friends he was.

"It's fine Pyrrha," Jaune said unconvincingly. "D-do you mind if we leave it there for today?"

Pyrrha opened her mouth as though to say something, but changed her mind and closed it. "We've done enough today, you can go," Pyrrha said eventually, sounding disheartened.

She watched silently as Jaune exited the room, wondering if her talent as a fighter and a wizard had once again cost her a friend.

Jaune needed to clear his head. He had always known the others were well ahead of him, but finding out that Pyrrha found a fight against him about as challenging as a warm up jog was a harsh wake up call. And with his arms still throbbing from the struggle of swinging the antique pieces of metal he called weapons around, it wasn't something he could easily forget or push aside.

"Hey! Jaune!" A boisterous voice called as he walked through the dining hall. He looked towards the source of the voice to see Yang jogging over to him.

"Hey Yang," he greeted, doing his best to push thoughts of the training session to the back of his mind and smile for his fellow blonde.

"You busy right now?" Yang asked eagerly. Jaune thought for a moment, he didn't have any plans for the rest of the day and could use something to distract him from his thoughts.

"I got nothing planned. What did you have in mind?"

Yang positively beamed at the response and answered with a single word. "Training."

 _Oh Gods no,_ was the first thought to enter Jaune's head, but as he looked down at Yang, all smiles and excitement, he couldn't say no.

"Sure, why not?" he replied, with a smile that he hoped didn't look as forced as it felt. Yang, thankfully, didn't seem to notice as she grabbed his sleeve and took off at a run, heading towards the exit.

Jaune had thought that training with Yang meant a return to the training rooms, and so he was surprised when she instead led him down Beacon's cliff to the Emerald Forest.

The area they were moving through was thicker than what they had passed through during Merlot's attack and Jaune found himself relieved that his armour was off being repaired as it would have just been something else for the branches to snag onto. As it was, Jaune found himself enjoying the weight difference that came with swapping armour plates and a hoodie for a white t-shirt.

It was as they made their way through the thick forest that Jaune voiced a question that had been nagging him.

"How strong is Pyrrha?"

"Well that depends," Yang replied, turning to look at Jaune while continuing to walk. "Are you asking how much she can lift, or how tough she is in a fight?" Yang laughed at the half-hearted glare Jaune sent her way before continuing. "I'd say she's above average."

"Come on Yang, I'm trying to ask a serious question," Jaune commented, unimpressed by Yang's answer.

"Sheesh, you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning or something?" Yang asked rhetorically, before stopping and taking on a thoughtful expression, seemingly thinking hard about how to answer Jaune's question.

When she opened her mouth to speak, she looked none too happy about what she had to say. "Honestly, explaining how powerful Pyrrha is can be done with a single sentence. She achieved S-class earlier in her life than anyone else, ever."

Yang didn't even need to look at Jaune to know the expression of awe that would be overtaking his face right now. It was the same look everyone had, herself included, when they heard the feats of the legendary Pyrrha Nikos for the first time.

"What's S-class?"

Yang's head whipped around so fast she almost gave herself whiplash, but as she levelled a disbelieving stare in Jaune's direction, he just looked back at her with confusion.

"I mean it sounds really impressive and pretty catchy, but I kinda, sort of, totally have no idea what it means."

As Yang's hand made contact with her face, she was pretty sure that if she facepalmed any harder she would've broken her nose.

"Sometimes I could swear you lived under a rock before coming to Vale," Yang said mainly to herself. "S-class is a qualification of sorts. Once you have proven yourself worthy of being counted as an S-class wizard, you can take on more dangerous, and therefore more profitable, quests. These quests are considered so dangerous that a single wrong move could mean death, either your own or someone else's. Those that have achieved S-class are considered the elite of the wizarding world."

"Woah," said Jaune, clearly impressed by the enormity of what it meant to be S-class. "So, it goes without saying that you have to be crazy strong to be S-class?"

Yang shook her head slightly. "Being powerful in combat is one way to earn it, but there are other ways. Take Oobleck for example. I'd beat him in raw strength, but I'd never be able to hit the guy because he knows my moves. He's smarter than every wizard in the guild in almost every subject. That's why he's S-Class."

"Wait, you're telling me that Dr Oobleck, the guy we went looking for at Mount Glenn, is an S-class wizard?" Jaune asked as Yang kept walking.

"Yep, but enough of that. We've arrived," Yang announced as she pushed aside a branch to reveal a large clearing.

The clearing was roughly circular, with enough space to comfortably land a Bullhead. The trees that surrounded it were many times taller than Jaune, with the thinnest being as wide as Pyrrha's shield.

"Welcome to our new training field!" Yang announced as she walked backwards into the clearing, her arms held out wide and such a large smile on her face that you would think she was revealing a five-star gym.

Before Jaune could argue the difference between a training area and a random clearing, Yang excitedly announced "For your first lesson, I want you to punch that tree!" as she pointed at a random tree on the edge of the clearing.

 _Not more arms training,_ Jaune moaned in his head as he somewhat reluctantly moved over to the indicated tree and got himself into the classic boxing stance. It was the first thing Pyrrha had taught him when they began training, she had explained it as a good foundation from which to learn to fight. His left foot came forward as he went up onto the balls of both feet, next his arms came up into a basic guard, high enough to protect his face but not so high they would impede his vision.

When he was ready he threw a cross with his right hand, his back-foot pivoting and his hips turning to add force to the punch as it impacted the tree.

"Not bad," Yang commented as she regarded the recently attacked tree. "Decent stance, pretty good form, all-in-all a passable punch for a civilian."

Jaune was starting to see where Yang was going with this but decided to humour her. "For a civilian?"

"Yeah, a civilian," Yang repeated. "If you want to throw a punch like a mage, then this is how you do it!"

As Yang finished her sentence, she pulled back her right fist and Jaune saw it glow with magical energy as flames started to flicker around it, and a moment later Yang slammed her fist into the tree, shattering the wood and leaving Jaune to desperately scramble away as the tree fell to Remnant.

"That's how a mage throws a punch," Yang proclaimed proudly through the thunder of the fallen tree.

Jaune stared dumbly at the broken tree, awed by the destructive power his friend wielded. As he struggled to form a coherent thought, Yang started explaining. "Now, what you want to be doing is gathering your magic in your arm and concentrating it into your fist. You want the magic to flow into your muscles. This will increase your strength beyond what is humanly possible.

"Do this enough and it starts to increase your natural strength. Because of this, a lot of experienced mages can pull off super-human feats without even having to use their magic." To demonstrate her point, Yang moved to the next tree along, and without any build up, punched the tree and left an inch-deep indent in the hardwood.

Jaune's mind was reeling from this new information. A part of him was aware of Yang smiling proudly, having finished her spiel and expecting a response, but he was too busy thinking of about how Ruby, small and adorable Ruby, could probably flip a car, while he struggled to make fifty push-ups.

"You wanna give it a try?" Yang asked, tearing Jaune from his train of thought. As he looked at his fellow blond, he saw she was no longer smiling, but looking at him with thinly veiled concern.

"Actually, I'm feeling a bit tired, mind if we do this another time?" Jaune asked sheepishly. What he said was half true, he was tired and sore from training with Pyrrha, the real reason was that he felt he needed some time alone to process how truly out of his depth he was among his new friends.

"It's only mid-morning, how are you already tired?" Yang asked, looking very unimpressed

Seeing no reason not to tell her about his earlier training, Jaune opened his mouth to do just that.

* * *

Yang stormed through the dining hall, roughly shoving aside anyone unlucky enough to get in her way as she searched for a certain scarlet haired mage. She found her target sitting alone on one of the long tables and made a beeline towards her. In place of a greeting, upon arrival Yang slammed her fist down on the table and nearly shouted in her ear.

"What the heck Nikos?!"

Pyrrha was clearly startled by the sudden and violent arrival of her guildmate, and before she could respond, Yang continued.

"I specifically recall asking you to train Jaune and you saying, word-for-word, 'I won't be training Jaune'. So, mind explaining why Jaune just told me he couldn't train with me today because he was already worn out from training with you?!"

Pyrrha found herself momentarily stunned by Yang's outburst before speaking up in a calm voice to try and explain herself. "Yang, I can explain-"

"Explain what? How you decided it would be great fun to lie to my face, then go behind my back and make me look like an idiot?"

A part of Yang's mind acknowledged she was being irrational, but it hadn't been easy for her to decide to step up and take on the responsibility that Ozpin wanted her to accept. Deciding to dedicate herself to the role of teaching someone had been one thing, but she had spent the last few days constantly brainstorming what she could teach someone with such a different fighting style and magic type to her.

Discovering that someone had already stepped into the role made it feel like a wasted effort. It made her feel angry, and right now Pyrrha seemed like the perfect target to let out her frustration.

What she didn't know was that Pyrrha, believing she had driven away another friend, was in no mood to stoically endure someone's temper tantrum, especially when it was centred around the aforementioned friend. Placing both hands on the table in front of her, she pushed herself to her feet with enough force to topple her chair backwards.

"It's not like that!" Pyrrha declared. "When you asked, you were just trying to offload your responsibility to someone else. However, when Jaune asked himself, it was because he had just been kidnapped and tortured, thanks to you I might add." Yang flinched at the words. "Not only that, but he wanted to learn to defend himself. In which case, I can't help but agree with his decision to ask me instead of you."

"That was a low blow, Nikos," Yang growled out as her fists clenched and her eyes turned red.

"Well, sometimes the truth hurts," came Pyrrha's terse reply, not even trying to avoid a fight at this point as she stared unflinchingly into Yang's eyes.

"If you two must fight, could you please do it somewhere where you won't damage the guild."

The no-nonsense tone had the two girls whipping around to see the guild's Second-in-Command, Glynda Goodwitch, standing there with her arms crossed and a terrifying glare on her face.

"Now if you're done acting like children," Goodwitch continued. "The Guild Master has a quest he would like Miss Nikos to handle."

With a final glare shared between Yang and Pyrrha that promised that their business wasn't over, Pyrrha turned fully to give her attention to Goodwitch.

"My apologies for causing a scene," Pyrrha said respectfully, having regained her composure far better than Yang, who still glared at the back of her head. "Might I ask what this quest entails?"

Goodwitch seemed pleased with the response as her glare lessened. "A group of mages have taken up residence in a rural town, deposed the local leadership and are now harshly reigning over the town's populace."

After some thought, Pyrrha spoke up. "Is the Guild Master insisting that I take on the quest?"

"The quest is of some importance to the guild, so when it came up, you were the first person he thought of to get it done quickly. That said, it doesn't have to be you that completes the quest," Goodwitch explained.

"In that case, if you don't mind, I would rather not take on any quests right now," Pyrrha replied. With a small nod she made to leave, before Yang spoke up. "If Nikos is too chicken to take on the quest, then I'll take it."

Goodwitch seemed surprised by the announcement, but quickly recovered. "I suppose that is acceptable. Though I would suggest taking a couple others with you."

Now it was Yang's turn to be surprised. "You didn't say anything about that to Pyrrha."

"Well unlike you, miss Nikos is an S-class wizard," Goodwitch replied.

The words had Yang once again looking ready to start a fight. "Fine," she growled from between gritted teeth. "But one of them is going to be Jaune," the last part directed in Pyrrha's direction.

"Well Mr. Arc wouldn't be my first choice, I suppose it's acceptable," Goodwitch conceded, ignoring the bitter look Pyrrha sent Yang's way.

"Great," Yang said, smirking victoriously at the look Pyrrha was giving her. "Do we have any idea who the guys terrorizing the town are?"

"Actually, you know them quite well. The ones in question are Beacon's very own Team Cardinal. Is that going to be a problem?"

Caught off guard at first, a smile quickly found its way to Yang's face. "Actually Miss G, I think that's the best news I've heard all day." Yang then turned to Pyrrha. "Last chance to get in on the action."

Pyrrha didn't voice an answer, instead turning her back to Yang and walking away.

"Suit yourself," Yang commented idly, as she turned away. As she walked, she pulled out her scroll and called Blake. It took a moment, but Blake answered after a few rings.

"What?" came Blake's voice.

Without missing a beat, Yang replied. "Put your porn down, we've got a job."

* * *

 **AN: This chapter and the next were originally meant to be one chapter, but things in this chapter ended up taking up more room than I expected so I decided to split it into two parts. A result of this is CRDL only getting mentioned instead of making an appearance.**

 **I also feel the need to say that some characters may seem OOC (e.g. Pyrrha being more confrontational) but that is because this is an AU. An effect of this is that the characters all have at least slightly different backstories and therefore will have developed differently with some slight changes to their personality.**

 **As always constructive criticism is appreciated.**


	11. Infighting Part-two

**AN: Sorry for how long this took, but it's here now and that's what matters. On another note, I would like to get a cover image made up for this fic, so if you are interested in doing that or know someone who might be, please PM me.**

* * *

 **Beta readers/editors: Korzark and Wyncrer the Sage**

* * *

Jaune stepped out of his bathroom and into the main room of his apartment with only a towel wrapped around his waist, inspecting the still forming bruises on his arm, a souvenir from his training with Pyrrha. His recent shower had helped him process all he had learnt and come to terms with just how hard he was going to have to work to catch up to his friends. With a satisfied sigh, he started making his way towards his wardrobe when a wolf-whistle sung out from inside his apartment.

Jaune was caught so off-guard by the sound, his body didn't know whether to turn to the source of the noise, jump back or freeze in place, and so it tried to do all three, resulting in Jaune ending up on the ground with a bruised rear.

He looked to the source of the sound, he saw Yang sitting backwards on the chair in front of his desk. Continuing to scan the room, he noticed Yang wasn't alone as Blake sat on his bed with her head in a book.

"Don't mind us, just keep going," Yang said, breaking the silence with a teasing smirk.

Her statement made Jaune acutely aware of how little he was wearing, causing a furious blush to consume his face as Yang burst out laughing.

"What are you guys doing here?" Jaune asked, nearly yelling in his embarrassment. "And how did you get in here in the first place?"

"Second one's easy," Yang said with a smile, not taking her eyes off Jaune. "We used Blake's magic."

Jaune looked to the dark-haired sorceress, who didn't look up from her book, instead raising her hand in a sort-of half wave.

Finally back on his feet, Jaune started making his way towards his wardrobe, maintaining eye contact with Yang as though she were a dangerous animal he had found himself in a stand-off with.

"What about the first thing?" Jaune asked cautiously.

"I got us a job," Yang explained proudly, getting up from her chair and walking towards Jaune.

"You could have just called about that, you didn't need to break in," Jaune complained.

Yang shrugged. "I did, you didn't answer, and I got bored of waiting outside. Now hurry up and get ready, I'll explain the quest on the way," the fire wizard said, giving Jaune's bruised arm a playful slap as she walked past.

Jaune rubbed his sore arm with a wince as Yang walked to the door. He looked to Blake to see if she had anything to add, but she merely closed her book and followed Yang out.

It was almost midday by the time the trio arrived at Vale's southern train station, with Jaune now fully dressed in jeans and a plain black hoodie, his usual one having ended up as badly damaged as his armour during his fall in Merlot tower. Yang already knew where they needed to go and was able to quickly organise the tickets they needed, and so in no time at all the three were in a train waiting to depart.

"No bullhead this time," Jaune commented as they sat down in their booth. "Have we already used them as much as we're allowed?"

"Bullheads are only for emergencies and urgent quests," Yang explained. "Plus, I didn't want to have to deal with you throwing up again."

"Oh come on," Jaune whined. "I'm not that bad!" The words had barely left his mouth when, with a jolt, the train started moving, and a moment later Jaune was doubled over and groaning.

"Seriously?" Yang exclaimed in disbelief. "We're barely even moving!"

Jaune wanted to make some biting response but in fear of what might happen should he open his mouth, he settled on a glare about as weak as he was currently feeling.

"Here," said Blake, in a tone far more compassionate than Yang's, as she rose from her seat next to Yang and kneeled in front of Jaune. "I know something that might help, but I'm going to need you to look at me for a moment."

Jaune sluggishly rose his head in compliance. When he was looking into her eyes Blake brought her hand up and pinched a point on his neck. Jaune tried to look at the spot being pinched and had barely managed to turn his neck when he passed out and fell against the train window. With her work done, Blake stood back up, and took the seat next to Jaune so she was opposite Yang.

The fire wizard looked at her with an amused smirk. "And they call Weiss cold hearted."

Blake shrugged, clearly unfazed by the comment. "It worked and this gives us some time to chat."

"You've never been the one to start up girl talk before, what's the occasion?" Yang's tone was teasing but Blake could see the tension in her.

"I'm being serious Yang," Blake insisted with a glare.

"Sheesh, don't get your knickers in a twist," Yang said as she raised her hands in a placating gesture, but Blake noticed her smile was gone.

"You're angry. Jaune might not be able to see it but he hasn't known you as long as I have. I'm not sure what's got you worked up, and it's probably none of my buisness. But what I do care about is making sure you don't make any rash decision because of it."

Yang was now frowning and Blake had to resist the urge to look away.

"I've seen you like this before, when all you want to do is punch someone, and usually that isn't a problem. We can both take care of ourselves and handle whatever you stir up, but this is different. Jaune isn't like us. The fact that he has survived as much as he has is nothing short of a miracle. So, I'm asking you to put aside your anger and focus on the mission."

"You done?" Yang almost spat the words. Blake opened her mouth but no words came to mind so she closed it. "Because this is pretty damn rich coming from you, considering how you act any time the White Fang is mentioned," Yang finished.

The words echoed like a gun shot through the booth. Yang had crossed a line, and Blake knew that Yang knew it too.

"I wasn't thinking straight back then," Blake admitted through gritted teeth. "But you were the one who talked me down. Now I'm trying to do the same for you."

"Really?!" Yang was on her feet now. "Then why does it feel like you're echoing Pyrrha and throwing my screw ups in my face?!" Without waiting for an answer Yang stormed out. Blake called out after but she ignored it. Not that Blake had any idea what to say, not after her first attempt at talking to her had gone so badly.

Jaune woke as the train jolted to a halt, the unfamiliar scenery causing a momentary panic as Jaune tried to rise to his feet, only for him to forget he was slouched sideways instead of lying down, causing him to fall off the seat with a startled cry and end up in a tangled mess on the floor.

"Are you…okay?"

Jaune quickly pulled himself to his feet and looked to the source of the question to see Blake sitting with book in hand, and looking at him with a mix of what was probably concern and disbelief, most likely wondering how it was possible to be as clumsy as he was.

"Oh yeah I'm totally fine. This happens more often than you think," Jaune said with a laugh, trying to brush it off before realise how ridiculous he made himself sound. "By 'this' I meant accidents, not you know, collapsing onto the ground as soon as I wake up."

Blake was now looking at him with slightly widened eyes. "Now I see what Weiss was talking about."

Deciding he didn't even want to know what the small, yet terrifying, gravity mage had said about him, Jaune scanned the booth and quickly realised something was missing.

"Where's Yang?"

Blake closed her book and stood before answering. "She decided to go on ahead. We should hurry, unless you want to be stuck on here till the next town." The last part being said as she stepped out of the booth, with Jaune quickly following.

Jaune breathed a sigh of relief, happy to be free of the train, and beheld the town that they were to help. It was rather modest, with a high wooden wall keeping most of it out of sight, but through its open main gate he could see squat buildings made almost entirely of wood. It reminded him a little of home.

"Come on," Blake ushered as she moved to the gate.

"So, Yang said we're meant to deal with some wizards that have set themselves up here. Do we know anything about what we're dealing with?" Jaune asked as they stepped through the gate and walked down the main avenue of the town.

"Yes," Blake answered curtly.

"Really? What do we know?"

Blake sighed as she stopped just short of one of the larger buildings, marked as a tavern by the sign above the door, realising there was no one else do it, she began explaining. "We are dealing with a team of four wizards. They are members of Beacon so it's important we handle this as quickly and peacefully as possible."

"Wait a sec, these guys are from Beacon?!"

"Yes, and don't interrupt," Blake chastised. "If it does come to a fight, three of them use magical weapons but aren't too much of a problem. The leader of the group is a different story. His name is Cardin Winchester and he uses a rare form of takeover magic called-" Blake paused her explanation and stared deadpan at Jaune who had raised his hand like a student wanting to ask a question. "What?"

"The three guys you mentioned, did two of them happen to wear plate armour? One grey and the other a tan colour?"

Blake wondered he knew this but nodded slowly nonetheless.

"The ah, the one that isn't wearing armour," Jaune stammered, now noticeably nervous. "He wouldn't happen to have a weird green mohawk would he?"

"It is pretty weird," Blake agreed.

"Yeah, I don't think we're getting out of here without a fight," Jaune admitted while pointing over Blake's shoulder.

True to Jaune's words, about twenty meters behind her, halfway down one of the paths that came off the main road, were the R, D and L of team CRDL. Blake eyes analysed the trio in an instant; Russel Thrush, light armour, armed with two daggers and sporting a light green mohawk. Dove Bronzewing, tan plate armour, single handed sword with revolver built into hilt. Lastly, Sky Lark, dark grey plate armour, halberd and long, slicked back, dark blue hair.

The trio had obviously seen them from the way they were staring at them and visibly tense.

"Relax," Blake reassured Jaune, not taking her eyes off the trio. "Cardin isn't here, so maybe Yang has managed to-"

She was interrupted as Yang came crashing through the tavern wall and rolling out into the street. The fire wizard picked herself up, taking a moment to orientate herself before shouting at the tavern "You ass! You got wood chips in my hair!"

"Dammit," Blake growled, unsheathing her weapon as Yang's attacker stepped through the hole made by Yang's exit.

Cardin Winchester, the tallest member of team Cardinal emerged into the streets. It was impossible not to notice him, not because of his impressive height, or the gold trim and decoration on his armour, but the fact that his left arm was disproportionately large, as it had transformed into the front limb of an Alpha Beowolf.

* * *

Having gone ahead, Yang had had no problem spotting her target the moment she walked in. After all, it's hard to hide when you're a giant in gold trimmed armour and no-one wants to sit within ten meters of you. Yang could feel the tension in the air, but ignored it as she walked up and took the barstool next to Cardin.

"What does a girl have to do to get a drink around here?"

Cardin's head lazily turned and it seemed to take him a second to recognise the newcomer. When he did he let out a huff. "I guess the Guild Master got tired of us causing trouble. Suppose it's time we-"

"What are you talking about?" Yang asked, feigning curiosity.

Cardin looked at her with genuine confusion. "Didn't Ozpin send you? To get us to leave this town?"

"Nope," Yang lied. "I'm just passing through on a quest." Then after a pause. "Should I be running you out of town?"

"Probably," Cardin admitted as he took a swig from the flagon in front of him. "Finished our quest days ago, decided to hang around and enjoy the hospitality." Yang couldn't help but check the wide berth the townsfolk were giving Cardin as he said that.

"Oh yeah? Let me guess, it's all the love and adoration they're showing you that makes you want to stay," Yang said sarcastically.

"Don't talk like you what it's like," Cardin growled.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Yang asked as she leaned into his personal space.

"You and you're buddies with your flashy powers have no idea what I put up with," Cardin said, getting louder as he shoved Yang out of his personal space. "You don't know what it's like to have people cheer as you walk into town, only for the same people to spit as you walk past when they see your magic."

"So, you're upset because people discriminate you because you're different?" Yang asked, before Cardin could answer she continued. "Cause I've seen how you treat faunus, and this honestly just feels like the universe getting back at you."

"That's different!" Cardin argued.

"Oh, sure," Yang mocked. "They didn't choose to be like that, and where they have animal ears, you turn into the bane of humanity."

Yang didn't even see the blow that hit her. One moment she was next to Cardin at the bar and the next she picking herself up outside with woodchips covering her clothes. She reached up to push some of her hair out of her face, only to pause when it ran into something that definitely wasn't hair.

"You ass! You got wood chips in my hair!"

With a roar, she enveloped herself in fire and charged at Cardin. When she got close, Cardin tore out a section of the tavern wall with his transformed arm, and swung it like a bat straight into Yang. She barely had time to activate her Flames of Vengeance before the strike connected and she was sent hurtling over a line of houses.

She managed to right herself while in the air and an intense jet of flames from her hands slowed her fall. She had barely touched town when Cardin, now fully transformed into an Alpha Beowolf, bounded out from a gap between two houses, the only noticeable difference between him and an actual Grimm was how his eyes shone blue. Yang's eyes remained a violent red as she threw a volley of fireballs at her fellow mage.

Cardin dodged the first, was hit by the second and third and leaped off the street and onto the roof of a nearby house to avoid the rest. The transformed mage ran across the rooftops, closing the distance between the two, before leaping down to strike. Yang jumped back out of range, and before Cardin could recover from his attack, she rushed forward with a shout.

"Fire magic: Blazing Strike!"

The punch hit Cardin square in the face, with enough force to flip him onto his back. He rolled to his feet, transforming back to his normal form as he did.

"You're really not holding back," Cardin muttered as he massaged his jaw. "Guess I shouldn't hold back either."

A glyph appeared at Cardin's feet and he disappeared amongst the yellow light that came out, and seconds later an indistinct shape of the same yellow light could be seen rising up. As the light faded, where Cardin once stood was a massive Ursa Major, raised up on its hind legs it reached higher than any of the surrounding houses.

"Well, that's new," Yang commented to herself as she got into a combat stance. The blue-eyed Grimm roared and the two mages charged at each other.

Jaune stumbled backwards, barely avoiding Russel's dual knives. He was glad he wasn't wearing his armour as it would only slow him down, something he couldn't afford right now, Russel was just too quick and had already disarmed him of his sword and shield.

"Light Make: Shield!" Jaune called, summoning a shield in the hopes of creating some space, only for those hopes to be dashed as Russel flipped clear over the shield. Thinking fast, Jaune dispelled the shield and dived forward, rolling right under his opponent. He scrambled to his feet to see his opponent waiting for him with a cocky grin.

"So, you're a maker mage huh? You know what the big weakness of maker magic is?"

Before Jaune could answer Russel rushed forward throwing one of his knives. Jaune ducked the throw only to come up to see Russel flip through the air and deliver a two-footed kick to his chest, knocking him clear off his feet, winding Jaune and leaving him lying on the ground gasping for air.

"A maker wizard needs time to think. All you need to do is keep them distracted till you get close and they fold," Russel remarked smugly, as the knife he had thrown spun through the air and back to his hand. With his fight done, he turned and started to walk towards his teammates.

Jaune rolled himself onto his side, where he could see Blake holding off the other two members of team CRDL. She was holding her own, but he doubted she would be able to handle three opponents at once. Dragging himself up onto all fours, then with an effort that felt like he was trying to deadlift a Beowolf, he stood up.

"Hey," Jaune tried to shout, only for it to come out as more of a cough. "We're not done fighting."

It may not have been impressive, but it did its job as Russel turned around, an amused expression on his face. But Jaune wasn't done.

"Light Make: Armour!" As the glowing suit of white light surrounded him, Russel lost his smirk.

Without a word Russel charged in again, throwing his knife as he hid last time. Only this time, Jaune was ready. He wasn't fast enough to dodge or get through Russel's guard so he needed another tactic.

His mind settled on the memory of Yang taking the hit from the Spider Droid to get stronger. He didn't have a spell to replicate that effect, but the idea of taking a hit to create an opportunity was something he could emulate. So, instead of dodging, he used his armoured right arm to block the knife, the blade sticking into the magical armour and staying.

Undeterred, Russel threw his other knife and Jaune repeated his earlier actions, this time with his left arm. Jaune lowered his arm just in time to see Russel leaping forward with his right leg extended in a kick. His boot scraped against Jaune's armour as Jaune twisted to the side and brought his arm down, trapping Russel's foot against his body.

Knowing he wouldn't be able to hold him long, Jaune moved quickly, gathering as much magical energy into his fist as he could, before striking Russel in the chest, right where Russel had landed a kick on him earlier. The mohawk wearing teen dropped to the ground and Jaune dispelled his armour. He turned to see if Blake needed any help, only to see Blake watching him while her opponents lay tangled together in her weapon's ribbon.

Before any words could be exchanged a villager ran up from nowhere. "Grimm! Grimm are attacking the town!"

"They must have been drawn by negativity cause by CRDL staying here, and us fighting in the streets must have been the tipping point," Blake deduced, oblivious to the shocked looks on Sky, Russel and Dove as they realised they had caused a Grimm attack. "We're going to need Yang," Blake declared, directing her words to Jaune. "We can't do this ourselves."

Jaune looked over to where he had seen Yang go, but all that was visible over the roof tops was a series of spot fires and the moving bone spikes of what he could only assume was Cardin.

"Let us help." The words came from Sky, still tied up on the ground and surprised Blake and Jaune. "I'll be the first to admit we're not nice people, but we're not the kind of assholes that would leave people to fend for themselves against a Grimm attack."

Blake looked to him with a questioning look, he shrugged back, and with a reluctant sigh Blake undid the bindings, only for the guys to pick up their weapons and sprint away as soon as they were up. Jaune watched the fleeing teens go with a shocked expression on his face.

"Unbelievable," Blake remarked sounding disgusted, but not entirely surprised. With a final shake of her head she turned to Jaune. "I'll do what I can to hold back the Grimm but I need you to get Yang."

Jaune looked in the direction of Yang's fight as a monstrous roar bellowed out from that direction. "Sure, why not, I haven't had nearly enough near-death experiences yet," Jaune said sarcastically. When Blake didn't respond, he looked back to see her already gone. With no other options, he started running for a gap between two houses and towards Yang's fight.

The scene in front of Jaune was every bit as terrifying as he had thought it would be. Cardin and Yang had been fighting between two rows of houses and where they had been was obvious. Cardin, in his Grimm form had taken chunks out of homes in pursuit of Yang who, in turn, had left a scattering of fires that townsfolk were already trying to douse without getting too close to the actual fight.

What shocked Jaune the most though was Cardin's appearance. The two battling mages were a few houses down from his current position, and he could see the massive bulk of what he recalled was an Ursa. The combination of its natural bone spikes and the smouldering fur, courtesy of Yang's attacks, created a nightmarish image with footsteps that struck the ground with a noise like a cannon firing.

Knowing time was of the essence, he ran forward with a shout of "Light Make: Javelin!" Six spears of light sprung into existence above him and launched themselves at Cardin's back and bouncing off, seemingly harmless. It did get his attention though, and it was as Cardin attempted to turn his massive body, that Jaune initiated the second part of his hastily constructed plan.

Placing his hands on the ground he called out "Light Make: Pillar!"

As the words left his mouth a cylinder of light, like the one he had used to ascend Merlot Tower, rose out of the ground between himself and Cardin. The pillar rapidly grew in height, but instead of going straight up it grew diagonally, striking the still turning Cardin in the side with enough force to knock him over.

Taking advantage of Cardin's position, Jaune held out his hands and yelled "Light Make: Shield!" He focused hard as he made the construct. Instead of being vertically orientated this one had to be horizontal, and larger, much larger, large enough to trap an Ursa under it.

To his immense relief it seemed to work. Due to his position on his side, Cardin seemed unable to move the shield that Jaune held there with his will. Jaune noticed Yang approaching and opened his mouth to tell her the situation, only for her to grab his shoulder in anger.

"What the heck are you doing?! This is my fight!"

The shock was almost enough for Jaune to lose focus and for a moment the shield flickered. Yang fixed a rage filled glare at Jaune, her eyes burning red and Jaune could tell she was in, what Ruby dubbed, 'Berserker mode'.

"Blake needs you!" he shouted back. He had only been trying to simplify the situation when he said it, but it seemed those were the right words as they cut through Yang's anger like a knife. Her eyes switched back to lilac and the temperature dropped.

"What happened?" Yang was no longer shouting, her anger replaced by worry.

"Grimm are attacking the town," Jaune explained. "Cardin's team ran and Blake is trying to hold off the attack herself."

Yang looked between Cardin, still trapped, and where Jaune had come from, obviously torn.

"Go help Blake," Jaune said, surprised by his own confidence. "I'll talk to Cardin."

"Jaune you can't," Yang argued, starting to sound desperate.

"What do you mean?"

"He lost control," Yang said with obvious concern. "During our fight Cardin lost control of his transformation. That's no longer Cardin in there, it's a seriously pissed off Grimm!"

As though to echo the point, Ursa-Cardin pushed against the shield and Jaune barely held it together.

"Go," Jaune said, not really knowing what he was saying. When Yang looked like she was going to argue he continued "I don't have to beat him I just have to keep him busy until you and Blake finish up, so hurry!"

With a final nod Yang turned and ran, going at a speed that had to have been magically enhanced. It was as she disappeared from sight that Ursa-Cardin pushed against the shield again with a mighty roar, this time proving too much for Jaune as the shield shattered. Jaune staggered back as Ursa-Cardin righted itself before rising up on its hind legs and bellowing. The beast came back down onto all fours and the hatred within its burning eyes burrowed into Jaune's soul.

"That's not good," Jaune muttered to himself.

Ursa-Cardin charged and Jaune braced himself, shouting "Light Make: Armour and Shield!"

The armour took shape around him as a shield as large as the last formed between the two, only for it to shatter as Ursa-Cardin barrelled into it. Jaune was sent flying with a single swipe from the beast and crashed into an already damaged house.

Jaune barely had any time to right himself as the Ursa-Cardin's forepaws came crashing down. When Ursa-Cardin's arms began to move, sweeping the wreckage of the house with it, Jaune quickly summoned another shield, smaller this time, just large enough to cover himself. The wreckage hit first, smashing to splinters between the shield and the monster's arms. Then the arms hit and, with a monumental effort, the shield held.

The small victory gave Jaune a glimmer of hope, only for it to die a quick death as he saw the Ursa twist its body, winding up to hit the shield with more force. Jaune watched the attack come and at the last second, dispelled the shield and threw himself back.

He watched as the Ursa-Cardin over balanced, having committed both front legs to the attack, and fell over.

The out-of-control wizard quickly pulled himself back up, the red eyes and smouldering fur looking more terrifying than ever as the sun started to get low. Realising he couldn't keep this going in the middle of the town, Jaune started running down the street heading towards the wall that surrounded the town. Ursa-Cardin took off in pursuit, closing in with thunderous steps.

Jaune didn't look back as he ran, focusing on going as fast as he possibly could. When he decided he was close enough to the wall he shouted "Light Make: Pillar!"

The cylinder rose up diagonally, propelling him up and forward to the top of the wall. As he ascended he felt Ursa-Cardin's hot breath wash over him and a moment later his pillar shattered. Fortunately, Jaune was already high enough to make it over the wall.

Barely.

Jaune tumbled through the air, his shoulder colliding with the wall top around the same time Ursa-Cardin barrelled through the wall. His armour protected him from the forest of spikes on Cardin's back and bouncing off Cardin's back and legs ironically saved him from breaking any bones upon landing.

Feeling battered and bruised, Jaune picked himself up. To his surprise, Ursa-Cardin seemed dazed, its head shaking lazily and its eyes switching between blue and red, only for, with a single violent head shake and a stamp, the eyes to stay red.

Not waiting to see what it would do, Jaune took off to the nearby tree line. The now familiar thunderous foot falls were all the confirmation he needed that Ursa-Cardin was following. Jaune ran between the trees, zig-zagging between the trees, looking for the thickest ones as he heard trees shatter behind him.

As Jaune ran between the two thickest trees yet, he realised the sound of Ursa-Cardin didn't seem as close. He risked a look behind him, just in time to seen Cardin crash into the trees he just passed and to Jaune's immense relief the trees held. Cardin's head could fit through the gap, but his shoulders were far too wide.

Jaune stopped, realising just how exhausted he was. He wasn't the only one, though, as the out of control Cardin seemed to be more exhausted than himself. The Ursa backed up and tried again, only for the trees to once again halt its progress, but Jaune noticed the hit took a chunk out of both trees.

Jaune tried to start running, only for his legs to give out under the strain. Realising that running would no longer work, he hobbled over to a nearby tree, just as thick as the ones stopping Cardin. He desperately looked around for something to help him fight, and as he watched Cardin chip away at the trees, an idea formed.

"Light Make: Sword." As the blade formed in his hand, Jaune started to frantically chopping away at the tree he was leaning on, once again racing against Cardin. His opponent had a head start and was close to breaking through. After what felt like hours but could only have been seconds, Jaune heard the ear-splitting CRACK as Cardin broke through. Knowing this was his only chance, Jaune roared as he swung one last time at the tree. As the sword swung down, Jaune saw the blade grow and cleave straight through the rest of the tree. Gravity did the rest.

The age-old tree plummeted down, straight onto the rapidly approaching head of Ursa Cardin. The tree bounced off his head, tumbling away as Cardin collapsed knocked completely unconscious. Jaune slumped against the newly formed tree stump as Ursa-Cardin, in a flash of yellow light, turned back into regular Cardin.

He heard shouting and spied Yang's unmistakeable blonde hair approaching. He sat there waiting, and as the adrenaline left his system, he became painfully aware of his body's battered state and how tired he was. As she got closer, Jaune noticed she wasn't alone and Blake was running alongside her. As they arrived Yang, ran right up to him, concern written all over her face, while Blake stood back, looking between Jaune and the unconscious Cardin with a look of confusion.

"I'm so sorry Jaune," Yang began. "This was all my fault."

Jaune waved dismissively, he was too tired to pay any attention to what she was saying, he did however have something he needed to say to her. "Yang? I think I'm gonna need the extra training."

With that his energy left him and he let himself fall asleep.

* * *

Roman lit a cigar and took a moment to savour it. With a drawn-out exhale, he decided he had put this off as long as possible. Any longer and he would be playing with fire in a far too literal fashion. Exiting the small corner office of the warehouse, he stepped into the main area. From there it was a matter of navigating the maze of shipping containers, all full of dust, to get to the main doors where he knew she was waiting.

When he turned the last corner, Roman saw her immediately, dark hair, amber eyes and that short red dress, beautiful in the most terrifying way. He was more than a little surprised to see that Cinder had not come alone. Next to her was a man dressed entirely in black. With a black cloak hanging from his shoulders, the dark outfit contrasted heavily with his fair skinned face and long white hair that ran down his back.

As Roman drew closer and could see more of the man, his face seemed vaguely familiar and told him the man was at least fifty years old, and yet despite that, his cobalt blue eyes were sharp and his body was unnaturally toned for someone his age. All clues pointed towards this man being a career mage, and Roman vaguely recalled a quote about being wary of those that grew old in a young man's game.

The newcomer spoke first. "Look who finally finished putting on their make-up and decided to join us," He quipped in a low yet powerful voice.

He knew to be on guard – the man had come with Cinder after all – and with years of dealing with thick-headed thugs and wannabe tough guys, remarks like his had long lost their sting. However if someone wanted to match wits then who was he to deny them.

"I'm surprised Cinder, never expected you to be so charitable as to help out the elderly," His tone was a practiced mix of smug and mocking as he stepped closer. "You must be lost," he said as slowed his words and emphasised his pronunciation "Bingo night is actually a few blocks from here, I could have one of my men take you there if you'd like?"

The black clad wizard rolled his eyes but said nothing. Roman made no attempt to hide the smirk that grew on his face. His reaction had told him plenty about the type of person he was dealing with.

"Behave Roman," Cinder said, her words, as always, carried with them the threat of violence. "You might want to try getting along with our new friend here. After all I want you two to work together from here on out."

Roman's first thought was to tell Cinder he didn't need the help, and that the new guy could bugger-off to wherever he came from, however, upon remembering that he enjoyed being alive decided against it. "Does this 'friend' of ours have a name, or should I just refer to him as 'the guy that never out grew his goth phase'?" Roman asked while pointedly ignoring the man in question.

"If you must know, my name is Wyncrer," the newly introduced Wyncrer cut-in.

"Hold up a sec," Roman said as he took a closer look at Wyncrer's face, before looking back to Cinder, then back to Wyncrer and bursting out laughing. "This is absolute gold," Roman managed between laughs. "When most people have a mid-life crisis they buy a sports car and get themselves a hot girlfriend, but you. You really outdid yourself."

Roman straightened up before continuing "Who would have thought that Wyncrer Gallidris, Guild Master of Vale's second largest guild, would be aiding Vale's most wanted."

"If you're done, I would like to get this over with soon," Wyncrer growled.

"Indeed. Roman I've already asked you to behave yourself, I won't ask again," Cinder said as her eyes glowed. "Wyncrer has proven himself very useful in recent weeks. He is the one that's been supplying anti-faunus gangs with high-grade weapons, and in doing so increased the amount of faunus turning to the White Fang."

Roman had suspected that Cinder had something to do with the increased gang violence, this only confirmed it. But, the fact that it had been carried out by what was, to all accounts, a well-known and widely respected member of society, was admittedly a surprise.

"I've given it some thought and decided that his efforts are worth diverting some of our newly acquired dust to. What do you think Roman?"

"Sounds fantastic," Roman said with a smile as he removed a glove and held it out to Wyncrer. "How about we shake on it to seal the deal?"

Wyncrer looked at the offered appendage with an unimpressed look, before raising his eyes to Roman's "I am well aware of what you are Torchwick. You're a thief by both trade and magic, and I will not be falling for any of your tricks." He said with a knowing stare, before diverting his attention to Cinder "If that's all there was to this meeting, I'll be taking my leave, and I ask you not waste my time like this again."

Cinder didn't take the words well if the way the temperature raised was any indication. "Watch your words Wyncrer, you came to me, not the other way around."

This was the time where Roman would start some serious back-pedalling if he was in Wyncrer's shoes. However, the Guild Master did not seem to share the same instincts as he met Cinder's challenge with an aura of frost emanating from him. "I approached you to start a partnership. I work with you, not for you. Remember that."

With this parting remark, Wyncrer flipped up the hood of his cloak and walked out into the night.

"Black cloaked figure skulking around the city at night, not suspicious at all," Roman muttered as the man in question disappeared from sight. "Are we really trusting him?"

"No," Cinder answered, traces of her ire still present in her voice. "But if he wants to think he's playing us for fools, then let him. He can't stop us, but for now he's useful, and he shall be kept around for as long as that lasts."

"Glad to hear it. Just hope the same isn't true for me," Roman commented.

"Don't worry Roman," Cinder reassured as she stepped closer to him and raised a hand to his face, before deciding against it and placing her hand on his shoulder. "You are in a very different situation to him. As he said, he came to me, but I came to you." With that, she too left, leaving Roman alone in the warehouse.

"Different situation my ass," Roman said to no-one as he walked back to his office. True she _had_ come to him, but he knew the same to be true about that fanatic Adam Taurus. He was disposable to her and he knew it, but he didn't rise to where he was by sitting back and letting people do as they pleased.

As he entered the small room he was greeted by the sight of Neo, his faithful assistant, or assassin depending on who you asked, sitting on his desk and pointing to a folder resting next to her.  
"I take it Junior finally came through?" he asked. Neo nodded, watching as he leafed through the folder.

"Tanion Braxton," Roman read aloud. "twenty-five years old, requip mage, gunner variant. Since early teens has been a member of the Genesis guild, run by none other than our new friend Wyncrer." Roman commented as an involuntary smile came across his face. "Looks like we found our gun-runner. Tell Junior to pass this along to the blonde, he'll know who I mean, tell him to call it a peace offering. I've got to make some calls to make. Mr Braxton is about to have a very bad day."

* * *

 **AN: Just a clarification about Wyncrer's name. It comes from a novel that my friend is writing, and he also happens to have used that alias as his fan fiction handle.**

 **As always, constructive criticism is appreciated.**

 **Also, who can guess Roman's magic?**


End file.
